Activists presented a petition Tuesday to the United Nations Human Rights Council calling on Pakistan to free a Christian mother of five from being put to death on the charge of blasphemy . A Pakistani court Asia Bibi guilty of defiling the name of the Prophet Mohammed during a 2009 argument with Muslim fellow field workers . The offense is punishable by death or life imprisonment , according to Pakistan 's penal code , and Bibi was sentenced to hang . But an investigation by a Pakistani government ministry found the charges stemmed from religious and personal enmity and recommended Bibi 's release . The petition was signed by 50 activists including a former Czech foreign minister , the president of the U.N. General Assembly , a survivor of Tiananmen Square and a women 's rights advocate from Mali . `` With Pakistan now running for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council , the government should make an important gesture by releasing Asia Bibi , and repealing its blasphemy law , which is inconsistent with basic human rights , '' said Hillel Neuer , director of U.N. Watch , a Geneva-based human rights group that organized the petition . However , Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that the government will not change the country 's controversial blasphemy laws . Liberal politician Salman Taseer , then governor of Punjab , who led a campaign to end the law , was assassinated in January 2011 . Taseer said the blasphemy laws were being misused to persecute religious minorities and had called for Bibi 's release . Bibi writes about her ordeal in a recently published book called `` Get Me Out of Here . '' It includes a letter she wrote to her family urging them to have faith in God . `` My children , '' she wrote , `` do n't lose courage or faith in Jesus Christ . ''
The petition calling for the release of Asia Bibi was signed by 50 activists . Hide Caption A probe found the charges stemmed from religious and personal enmity . The petition urges an end to Pakistan 's blasphemy laws .