A Pakistani man, accused of blaspheming Islam, was sentenced to death June 29 by a district court in Faisalabad, Pakistan. Abdullah Ashiq Kingri Masih, a Christian, encountered the country’s harsh blasphemy laws in May 2000 when he is alleged to have made “derogatory remarks” about the Prophet Mohammad. Masih has appealed his conviction to the country’s High Court.

Under Pakistan law, blasphemy carries a mandatory death sentence. So far, no one convicted of the offense has actually been executed—in each instance, the verdict has been overturned on appeal.

News reports cite at least two occasions, however, where Christians have successfully appealed their conviction, only to be subsequently murdered by Muslim extremists.

“This deplorable situation demonstrates the need to remove this discriminatory law from the statute books,” says Jonathan Gallagher, representative to the United Nations for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. “The blasphemy law encourages attacks on members of religious minorities and employs state power to enforce majority beliefs, in violation of the principles of religious freedom. Such actions clearly contravene the U.N. Declaration on Human Rights and bring censure on those charged with enforcing this prejudicial legislation.”

Pakistan’s current blasphemy laws date from the mid-1980s and have drawn repeated criticism from human rights organizations around the world.