ISLAMABAD: A court will hear final arguments on Thursday in the blasphemy trial of a former university lecturer a week after a US religious freedom commission placed his name on its list of global victims, his lawyer said.

Junaid Hafeez has been in solitary confinement for fear of being attacked by fellow inmates in jail since his arrest in 2013 on blasphemy charges linked to online posts.

In 2013, students at a Multan university where Hafeez taught English literature accused him of blasphemous Facebook posts.

His lawyers say he was framed by students from an extremist party for his liberal and secular views.

“It is a kind of a recognition that people are being persecuted in Pakistan for their belief and freedom of expression,” his lawyer, Asad Jamal, told Reuters.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2019