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Three witnesses whose testimony could absolve a 14-year-old Pakistani girl facing life in prison have changed their statements, CNN reported.

It's the latest twist in the case of Rimsha Masih, a Christian teenager who was charged more than a month ago under Pakistan's blasphemy laws for allegedly burning pages of Islam's holy book for cooking fuel. She has denied the charges.

The three witnesses initially told police they saw Khalid Jadoon Chishti, a Muslim cleric, tear pages out of a copy of the Quran and put them with police evidence that led to the charges against Rimsha.

But they recanted those statements on Monday at a bail hearing for the cleric, according to the imam's lawyer, Wajid Ali Gilani. A fourth witness stood by his initial statement.

The witnesses are a critical part of the police investigation that determined last week that the imam framed the teen. Based on that investigation and a lack of witnesses, her lawyers are now appealing to have the blasphemy charges dismissed.

Islamabad's police chief accused the three witnesses of lying to the court on Monday.

Police arrested Rimsha in August after her neighbor accused her of burning Quran pages to for cooking fuel, investigators said. The neighbor began to shout in protest, drawing a crowd that grew angry.

Some neighbors said the teenager was beaten. Others said she ran back home and locked herself inside. When police arrived, they arrested her.

Rimsha's lawyers said the neighbor wanted to settle a personal score with the girl because the two didn't get along. They said it's likely that he liked the teen and she didn't feel the same.

The lawyers say that no one actually saw Rimsha burning the papers, but that the neighbor went to Chishti with the bags.

According to police, Chishti wasn't certain that simply burning pages with texts from the Quran would be enough to convict Rimsha on blasphemy charges. So, he added two pages from the actual holy book to the bag to bolster the case, they said.