by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - A group of Christians in Pakistan accused of killing two Muslims in 2015 in riots that followed Taliban suicide bombings on churches were acquitted last week after paying "blood money" to the victim families.
The 41 Christians and one Muslim who were blamed for burning two Muslim men alive maintained their innocence, and were reportedly offered freedom by a Muslim prosecutor in 2017 if they converted to Islam.
“The five years that I spent in jail cannot be described in words – there were times when I had lost hope of seeing my family,” said Irfan Bashir Masih, one of the Christian men who was acquitted. “I was not even present at the scene when the two Muslim youths were burned alive."
The accused reportedly had to pay the Muslim families who lost loved ones almost $200,000, but not before two of the wrongly accused Christians died during their five-year prison sentence.
Pakistan ranks as the fifth-worst persecutor of Christians worldwide on Open Doors USA's newest 2020 World Watch List.