Pakistani YouTuber charged with blasphemy over perfume

A Pakistani YouTube star has been charged with blasphemy after launching a perfume named after the very law he has fallen foul of, police said on Tuesday.

Rajab Butt has one of the largest online followings in the country and has been embroiled in controversy for years, including over his brief custody of a lion cub.

In a recent video, since deleted from his social media accounts, Butt launched his “295” perfume which refers to blasphemy legislation in the penal code.

He said it followed a case filed against him last year, over an earlier video deemed blasphemous by radicals.

His perfume publicity sparked further ire, prompting the leader of the radical Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) to file a complaint late on Monday.

“Our religious sentiments have been hurt”, said TLP leader Haider Ali Shah Gillani, whose party puts blasphemy as its central concern.

“There are numerous sections in the penal code but why did he choose blasphemy-related sections to name a perfume?” he told reporters.

“This means you acknowledge the offence and are celebrating it. This is essentially an attempt to normalise such actions,” he said.

A police charge sheet seen by media and authenticated by a police official on Tuesday details the accusations against Butt, including blasphemy and cybercrime.

In both cases against him, the social media personality risks up to 10 years in prison.

Butt issued an apology video on Sunday, asserting he is not against the country’s blasphemy laws.

“I apologise for the words I uttered during the launch of the perfume,” he said while holding Holy Quran.

“I apologise and announce the discontinuation of this perfume,” he added.

Butt has previously drawn a parallel with his “mentor”, the slain Indian rapper Sidhu Moose Wala, who released a song titled “295” in reference to religious incitement.

In other legal troubles, Butt pleaded guilty in January to owning an undocumented wild animal after accepting a lion cub as a wedding gift.

He avoided jail by promising a judge to post animal rights videos for a year.

Blasphemy is an incendiary charge in Pakistan, where even unsubstantiated accusations can incite public outrage and lead to lynchings.

In January this year, a local court in Pakistan has sentenced four men to death for posting blasphemous content online.

The four men were sentenced in Rawalpindi, the garrison city that neighbours the capital Islamabad, Rao Abdur Raheem, a lawyer from the Legal Commission on Blasphemy Pakistan (LCBP), told AFP.

Pakistan has witnessed a sharp increase in the prosecution of “online blasphemy” cases, with private groups bringing charges against hundreds of young individuals for allegedly committing blasphemy.

However, despite the conviction, Pakistan has never executed anyone for blasphemy.

A member of a support group formed by the families confirmed the sentence to reporter and said the group would challenge the conviction.

“The pattern of arrests and prosecutions in this case is consistent with previous ones,” said the support group member, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.

“We urge the government to establish a commission to investigate the rise in these cases before these young individuals spend the best years of their lives behind bars.”

Many of the online blasphemy cases are being brought to trial by private “vigilante groups” led by lawyers and supported by volunteers who scour the internet for offenders, rights groups and police say.

A report published by the government-run National Commission for Human Rights in October last year said there were 767 people, mostly young men, in jail awaiting trial over blasphemy allegations.

“In these cases, due process was notably disregarded, with significant procedural violations observed at multiple stages,” the report said.

“Arrests were often carried out by private individuals rather than law enforcement.”

Cases can drag through the courts for years, although death penalties are often commuted to life in prison on appeal at the Supreme Court.

A special court was formed in September to expedite the dozens of pending cases.

Agencies