A court in Pakistan on Thursday acquitted a Christian couple who spent eight years on death row after a conviction on blasphemy charges, a defense lawyer said, in a rare judgment welcomed by rights bodies.

Shafqat Masih and his wife Shughufta were handed death sentences in 2014 for sending a text messages to their Muslim colleagues deemed blasphemous, lawyer Saiful Malook told dpa.

The Lahore High Court in the central province of Punjab had acquitted the couple after three days of arguments on their appeal against the conviction, Malook said.

The judgment came weeks after the couple’s plight was highlighted in a resolution by the European Parliament to denounce Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws.

NAN