US Urges Pakistan To Reform Legal System After American Killed In Court - State Dept.

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st July, 2020) The US government is outraged over the killing of an American citizen in a Pakistani courtroom and is calling on Islamabad to reform its justice system, State Department spokesperson Cale Brown said in a statement.

"We are shocked, saddened, and outraged that American citizen Tahir Naseem was killed yesterday inside a Pakistani courtroom," Brown said on Thursday. "We urge Pakistan to immediately reform its often abused blasphemy laws and its court system, which allow such abuses to occur, and to ensure that the suspect is prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

Brown said Naseem had been "lured" to Pakistan from his home in Illinois by individuals who used Pakistan's blasphemy laws to entrap him.

Naseem was a member of Pakistan's Ahmadi minority. He was arrested in 2018 on allegations of blasphemy.