ISLAMABAD—A university professor held for six years after being arrested for blasphemy over Facebook posts was sentenced to death Saturday by a Pakistani court in a case that has drawn international attention.

Junaid Hafeez was an English literature professor at the government-run Bahauddin Zakariya University in Multan, a city in the center of Pakistan. He had returned to teach in Pakistan after studying as a Fulbright scholar at Jackson State University in Mississippi.

Pakistan has some of the harshest blasphemy laws in the world. Hundreds of people are being held in jail in the country, many awaiting trial.

Mr. Hafeez’s case represents a new, and increasingly common blasphemy allegation stemming from social-media posts. Islamic hard-liners among Mr. Hafeez’s students accused him in 2013 of being behind anonymous posts on some secular-orientated Facebook pages.

After his arrest, he was charged with blasphemy based on the posts and other material found on his computer.

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Mr. Hafeez has said throughout he wasn’t guilty of blasphemy.

“Junaid’s case is a representative example of the abuse that the blasphemy law perpetuates and enables,” said Saroop Ijaz, legal adviser based in Pakistan for Human Rights Watch. ”His case also signifies a disturbing trend of prosecuting people under blasphemy laws for comments allegedly made in the digital space.”

He had been held in solitary confinement while his trial proceeded.

Seven different judges heard the case in six years, after they were successively transferred off the case. His first lawyer was shot dead by religious extremists in his law office, and his killers were never identified or brought to justice.

Mr. Hafeez’s family and lawyers say the fact they remain free raised concerns about whether the trial was fair.

“The injustice done to Junaid Hafeez gives every concerned citizen of Pakistan an opportunity to raise pertinent questions about how the judicial institutions, prosecution service, the police and prison authorities work in this country,” said a statement issued by his lawyers and family.

Pakistan’s blasphemy law carries a mandatory death sentence for “insults” to the Prophet Muhammad. Critics of the laws say that accusations are often flimsy or concocted to settle personal grievances. Police and the courts are under life-threatening pressure from extremists to arrest those accused and convict them, human rights groups say.

The court, in its ruling, said the blasphemy law allows no leniency.

Mr. Hafeez’s lawyers said they would appeal the trial court’s verdict in a higher court.

The blasphemy law is used disproportionately against religious minorities. But it is also deployed against Muslims, like Mr. Hafeez.

The case had drawn some international attention, including from Vice President Mike Pence, who in July urged the Pakistani authorities to release him.

Much more international attention was given to the recent case of a Pakistani Christian woman, Asia Bibi, a farmhand who was accused by fellow villagers of making remarks insulting to Islam.

Ms. Bibi was sentenced to death and was in jail for nine years before her case ended up in the Supreme Court, where she was acquitted last year. The decision sparked angry street protests and threats. She fled the country after the ruling, accepting asylum in Canada.

Zia ur Rehman Chaudhry, the state prosecutor in Mr. Hafeez’s case, said that additional charges were added to the original Facebook-related accusations. He said that the prosecution had brought evidence in court of Mr. Hafeez uploading content on Facebook. Mr. Hafeez was also prosecuted for comments he had made in class about Islam and the Quran, said Mr. Chaudhry.

Facebook declined to comment.