Pakistan Court Upholds Blasphemy Death Sentence

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A defense lawyer in Pakistan says a top court has upheld the death sentence of a Christian woman whose 2010 conviction for blasphemy led to the assassination of two politicians who supported her.

Lawyer Sardar Mushtaq said Friday that the 50-year-old woman had appealed before the Lahore High Court against the ruling in which she was found guilty of insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Mushtaq said the court rejected her appeal Thursday.

The case drew global criticism in 2011 when Pakistan's minister for minorities Shahbaz Bhatti and eastern Punjab governor Salman Taseer were killed for supporting her and opposing blasphemy laws.

Insulting the Quran or the Prophet Muhammad can be punished with life imprisonment or death in Pakistan.