Pakistani Christian Samuel Masih was charged with blasphemy, for allowing garden rubbish he was collecting to touch the side of a mosque. While awaiting trial for his “crime,” he suffered a bout of tuberculosis—and as he lay in his hospital bed, a Muslim police constable came into the room and beat him to death with a hammer. (Hat tip: Allah.)

Samuel Masih was buried in Lahore, Pakistan, yesterday following injuries he received from a Muslim policeman who beat the 27-year-old Christian with a hammer as he lay in his hospital bed recovering from a bout of tuberculosis.

Masih had been in jail since Aug. 23, 2003, awaiting trial on charges of blasphemy under Pakistan’s strict “Law 295” — which forbids desecrating the Quran and “defiling” the name of Islam’s prophet, Muhammad. On the day of his arrest, Masih was collecting garden rubbish, which he heaped temporarily against the wall of a mosque in Lahore’s Lawrence Gardens section while collecting more that he planned to burn later. This action brought the blasphemy charge, which carries a maximum two-year prison sentence.