ISLAMABAD – A Pakistani court Tuesday dismissed charges against a Christian girl accused of desecrating the Quran, ending a case that had cast a spotlight on the country’s controversial blasphemy law and renewed questions about the treatment of minorities.

The Islamabad High Court concluded there was no evidence to support allegations that Rimsha Masih, 14, had ripped pages from the Quran on Aug. 16 and burned them, said one of her attorneys, Akmal Waheed Bhatti.

Rimsha spent three weeks in jail but was later freed on bail after police came across evidence they say shows an imam at a mosque in her neighborhood had ripped pages from a copy of the Quran and planted them in a bag of ashes and trash that the girl was taking to a garbage bin.

The cleric, Khalid Chishti, now faces charges of fabricating evidence against Rimsha. Chishti was among the group of Muslims in Rimsha’s neighborhood who claimed she had violated the blasphemy law. He is free on bail and awaiting trial.

“We were on firm ground because there were no witnesses to back up the charges,” Bhatti said. “It was a fabricated story.”

In Pakistan, it is a crime to desecrate the Quran or insult the prophet Muhammad or the Islamic faith in any way. In some instances, a conviction can lead to the death sentence.

The law is often exploited as a tool to settle scores against adversaries or persecute minorities, particularly Christians and Ahmadis, members of a Muslim sect viewed by most Pakistanis as traitors to Islam because they revere another prophet in addition to Muhammad.

A conservative Islamist mentality still dominates in segments of this society, and in the past blasphemy allegations have led to mob violence against accused individuals. Last July, a mentally unstable man accused of blasphemy was dragged from a police station in the southern Punjab city of Bahawalpur in July and burned alive.

Rimsha’s attorneys maintained that friction between Christians and Muslims living in Rimsha’s neighborhood may have led to the blasphemy charges. Local Muslims had grown frustrated with the presence of Christians, Rimsha’s supporters say, and had been talking of the need to force them out.