Prime Minister David Cameron asked his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on Friday to ensure a British man jailed for blasphemy is treated fairly and that his history of mental health is taken into account. Cameron raised the case of 70-year-old Asghar during a meeting in London with Prime Minister Sharif, the British leader's spokeswoman told reporters, saying more junior government officials had previously raised the same matter.
Asghar was arrested in 2010 and sentenced to death in January after a disgruntled tenant presented letters he had written saying he was a prophet. In September, his lawyers said he had been shot and wounded in jail by a prison guard in Rawalpindi. "The PM raised the Asghar case," said Cameron's spokeswoman. "Our focus at the moment is making sure he gets the right level of treatment and that the case is handled in the right way, given his particular situation." Asghar had previously been detained under the mental health act in Britain and diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, according to documents his lawyers supplied to Reuters.