Over 540,000 sign petition for the release of Asia Bibi

Over 540,000 people have signed the global petition calling for the release of Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan.

Bibi was sentenced to death in 2010 based on the accusations of her co-workers that she insulted the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Pakistan's Supreme Court has set the date for her final appeal in October but one of the judges who was supposed to preside over the trial withdrew from the case.

The petition was initiated by the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). The group sent a letter to Pakistan's Ambassador the the U.S. last week objecting to the delay in Bibi's trial.

"This further delay in Asia's case is unacceptable. As we stated before, Asia's arrest, imprisonment, and death sentence violate international agreements Pakistan has ratified without reservations. Asia has already spent seven years in prison waiting for the final outcome of her case," the organization wrote.

"Now the Supreme Court has further delayed her case. This is utterly unconscionable in light of the well-known fact that most blasphemy cases are based on false accusations, followed by faulty investigations and trials full of errors. This is precisely what happened in Asia's case," it continued.

Justice Iqbal Hameed ur Rehman, the judge who abstained from Bibi's case, said that he had to recuse himself because he was involved in hearing a related case.

"I was a part of the bench that was hearing the case of Salmaan Taseer, and this case is related to that," he told the court.

Taseer was a provincial governor who was shot in Islamabad in 2011 after he expressed his support for Bibi. Rehman resigned from the judiciary several days later without giving a specific reason.

Wilson Chowdhry, chair of the British Pakistani Christian Association, asserted that Rehman did not want to be condemned by people in the West when he affirmed Bibi's death sentence.

Bibi would be the first woman to be executed under the blasphemy law in Pakistan if she loses her appeal.