ITAN WALI, Pakistan, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- A Pakistani Christian woman sentenced to death by hanging for allegedly defaming Islam will have her sentence reviewed by an appeals court, a prosecutor said.

The appeal of the death sentence of Asia Bibi, a field worker who would be Pakistan's first person executed for blasphemy, will be heard by the Lahore High Court, Chaudhry Muhammad Jahangir told CNN.


Bibi, 45, was convicted by a lower court following a June 2009 incident in which she allegedly dipped her cup into a bucket of drinking water used by other female fruit pickers, who then allegedly considered the water contaminated by a non-Muslim.

The women got into a heated argument, court records indicate.

During the argument, Bibi "said your Mohammed had worms in his mouth before he died" -- a crude way of saying Mohammed was no prophet -- said Magia Satar, who said she was there and heard Bibi's alleged insults.

Town cleric Qari Mohammed Salim learned of the alleged incident and reported it to police, who arrested Bibi. After nearly 15 months in prison, she was convicted -- a moment Salim called one of the happiest moments of his life.

"Tears of joy poured from my eyes," he told CNN.

Neither the Koran nor the Prophet Mohammed's teachings in the Hadith -- regarded by traditional Islamic schools of jurisprudence as important for understanding the theory and philosophy of law -- call for the execution of blasphemers, CNN said.

But Islamic scholars and jurists included the death sentence for blasphemy when drafting Sharia, or Islamic law.