A Christian mother who spent eight years on death row for blasphemy has been acquitted after winning her final appeal and can now begin a new life in Canada with her daughters.
Pakistan‘s Supreme Court rejected challenges against its decision to acquit Asia Bibi after she was cleared last October.
Ms Bibi, who spent eight years on death row and who has been under guard at a secret place since her acquittal last October, was overjoyed at the news.
‘I am really gratefully to everybody, now after nine years it is confirmed that I am free and I will be going to hug my daughters,’ a friend quoted Mrs Bibi as saying.
She will be reunited with her three daughters who earlier fled to Canada where they were granted asylum.
But first she faces a perilous 48 hours as a secret operation gets under way to spirit her out of the country.
A source close to Mrs Bibi said: ‘She is not safe until she gets out. There are powerful people who want her dead’.