ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A Pakistani court granted bail Friday to a young Christian girl whose jailing on a blasphemy charge three weeks ago spurred an international outcry over the treatment of religious minorities.
Police arrested the girl, said to be 14, after a young man claimed he saw her carrying burnt pages of the Koran in a trash bag in her village outside Islamabad. Under Pakistani laws that forbid desecrating the Koran, the girl faces life in prison.
Judge Mohammad Azam Khan set her bail at 1 million rupees, or $10,500, a huge sum for most Pakistanis. But Paul Bhatti, who heads Pakistan’s Ministry of National Harmony, predicted the girl would be released Friday evening from the high security prison near Rawalpindi.
