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A British man sentenced to death in Pakistan for allegedly claiming to be the Prophet Muhammed has appealed the sentence.

Muhammed Asghar, 69, who is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, was handed the sentence a week ago by a court in Rawalpindi after he was accused of claiming to be the Prophet Muhammed in unsent letters.

His lawyers filed an appeal against his conviction and death sentence for blasphemy at the High Court on Friday, according to The Independent.

“The retried shopkeeper from Edinburgh is said to be in very poor health and not receiving treatment for his severe mental illness. David Cameron was among senior figures to highlight the case this week. The Prime Minister said he was ‘deeply concerned’ over the Pakistani court’s failure to include medical evidence in the trial,” the paper reported.

The Independent also reported the case of a second British man facing blasphemy charges in Pakistan. “Masud Ahmad, 72, is currently on bail in Lahore after he was allegedly tricked into publicly reading from the Koran – an act which is forbidden for members of the minority Ahmadi sect to which he belongs. He now faces three years in jail,” the paper said, adding:

“Mr Ahmad’s son Abbas, 39, who lives in Glasgow along with a brother and two sisters, said their father had been targeted by powerful figures linked to a right-wing religious group and that he now faced losing the property where he practised as a homeopath.”

Under Pakistan law it is an offence for Ahmadis to call themselves Muslim. Each year dozens of members of the sect are charged with breaching religious laws whilst they and other minorities are also at risk of outbreaks of sectarian violence in the country if they are deemed to have committed blasphemy.

•Photo shows British PM David Cameron.

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