Ayub MasihPakistan 
Ayub Masih was arrested in October 1996 near Arifwala, about 200 kilometers southwest of Lahore. In April 1998, he was sentenced to death for blasphemy. The only evidence against him came from a neighbor, who claimed that Masih had blasphemed Mohammed by praising Salman Rushdie’s book, “The Satanic Verses.” Masih, a Christian man, lost his appeal against the death sentence in the High Court of Pakistan in July 2001. According to Amnesty International, the real motive for bringing the blasphemy charge was a land dispute in his village. He was released, following six years in prison, on August 15, 2002, and immediately fled to another country to escape threats from extremists.
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