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Pakistani police have arrested a Muslim cleric who accused a 14-year-old Christian girl of blasphemy for allegedly burning pages of the Koran.
Officers said Khalid Chishti was held on suspicion of planting pages of the book in a shopping bag containing burned papers and ash that had been carried by Rimsha Masih.
The young girl - who a medical report found has a lower than average IQ - has been held in custody in a high-security prison in Rawalpindi for more than two weeks.
She faces the death penalty if convicted under Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws.
Her case has provoked international outrage because of her young age, her mental capacity and the harsh conditions she is being held in.
Some reports have said Rimsha has Down's Syndrome and is actually only 11-years-old.
She was due to find out on Monday whether she would be released on bail.
Judge Muhammad Azam Khan adjourned the case on Saturday and asked police to investigate her bail application after prosecutors claimed paperwork had not been signed by the girl or her mother.
The short hearing heard from her neighbour Malik Amad, who rents a house in a slum area of Islamabad to the girl's family.
He said he saw her carrying a bag full of ashes, containing verses from the Koran.
Chishti, the local Imam, was also at the hearing and called for the law to be followed to its conclusion, even if that means the girl is executed.
Speaking to reporters outside the court, Rimsha's lawyer Tahir Naveed Chaudhry said: "The medical report has declared her an underage person with low IQ.
"How can she commit blasphemy? She is innocent and should be released."
The Imam's arrest may see her freed and defuse what has been a religiously charged case in Pakistan.
Blasphemy is a very sensitive subject in the country, where 97% of the population are Muslims, and allegations of insulting Islam or the Prophet Mohammed often prompt a furious public reaction.
In July, a 2,000-strong mob snatched a mentally unstable man from a police station, beat him to death and torched his body after he was accused of burning pages from the Koran.
The country’s president Asif Ali Zardari had called on officials to explain Rimsha's arrest.
His government has been heavily criticised in the West for refusing to reform anti-blasphemy laws, despite the assassinations of a leading politician and a Christian cabinet minister.
Punjab governor Salman Taseer was killed in January 2011 and minorities minister Shahbaz Bhatti two months later for their opposition to the blasphemy law.
They had taken up the plight of a Christian mother sentenced to death for blasphemy in late 2010. She remains in prison.
