In November 2017, Pakistani Christian Nadeem Samson was accused of making a blasphemous Facebook post. The accusation was likely false. The two accusers reportedly made a Facebook account in Nadeem’s name using a phone number publicly available on an “herbal medicine website” Nadeem maintained, after which they made the blasphemous posts they reported to the police. Nadeem had apparently been involved in a “property dispute” with one of his accusers, who owed him money after leasing property from him.

“I’ve been fighting for my brother. After one year of the lease, the owner had to pay him $4,000. But the owner chose not to do that and instead invent this conspiracy. He paid the police and he made it a cybercrime.” - Shakeel Anjum, Nadeem’s brother

Nadeem’s brother, who is a U.S. citizen, claims that after he was taken into police custody, he was “beaten” for a few days in order to extract a confession. He also claims that when Nadeem appeared in court, he was physically assaulted there too.

As of January 2021, more than three years later, Nadeem has still not been released, and his case has still not reached any conclusion.