Pakistani court hands down death penalty for Facebook posts

Taimoor Raza, 30, was convicted by an anti-terrorism court in Bahawalpur of posting blasphemous remarks about the Prophet Muhammad, his wives and companions.

According to his lawyer, he became involved in an argument about Islam with someone who turned out to be a counter-terrorism official.

It is widely believed to be the first time that a death penalty has been handed down in a case centred on social media.

Mr Raza will be able to appeal against the death penalty at Lahore High Court and in the Supreme Court.

Glasgow and Harvard graduate, Isabel Buchanan, looks at the issues surrounding the death penalty in Pakistan in her book, Trials: On Death Row in Pakistan, reviewed last year in ILN.