Pakistan human rights lawyers Imaan Mazari and Hadi Chattha sentenced to 17 years over social media posts

A classes court docket in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Saturday sentenced human rights lawyer Iman Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband, fellow lawyer Hadi Ali Chattha, to a mixed 17 years imprisonment on a number of fees associated to controversial social media posts.

The 2 have been charged in accordance with the Prevention of Digital Crimes Act (PECA). In keeping with the judgment, one of many related tweets involved “Mahrang Baloch… making an indication of victory” and known as for folks to “Be a part of us on 7 Could from 6 PM until midnight to demand justice for Dr. Mahrang Baloch & all different illegally detained BYC leaders.” Mahrang Baloch is a proscribed particular person underneath the Fourth Schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Glorification of a proscribed particular person is criminalized underneath Part 9 of the PECA and is punishable by as much as seven years imprisonment. Glorification is outlined as ” depiction of any type of reward or celebration in a fascinating method.”

The judgment additionally dominated that calling Pakistan a “terrorist state” is an offense underneath Part 10 of the PECA. Additional, the 2 have been convicted of violating Part 10 for accusing state establishments of human rights violations, which “advance the targets of (proscribed) organizations or people”.

The 2 have been additionally convicted underneath Part 26-A of the PECA. Part 26-A punishes somebody who “deliberately disseminates, publicly displays, or transmits any info by way of any info system, that he is aware of or has cause to consider to be false or faux and prone to trigger or create a way of concern.” The Part 26-A fees relate to the “solidarity with Mahrang Baloch that she was wrongly incarcerated” and the declare of Ghazi Amahullah’s pressured disappearance.

On Friday, the 2 have been arrested in Islamabad, a transfer Amnesty Worldwide known as “the newest escalation in a sustained marketing campaign of judicial harassment and intimidation by the Pakistani authorities.” Amnesty reported that eyewitnesses noticed regulation enforcement use undue pressure and offered no justification for his or her arrest. The arrest and sentencing have been condemned by public figures throughout Pakistan.

In keeping with a joint assertion by the Worldwide Bar Affiliation, Attorneys for Attorneys, the Legislation Society of England and Wales, the prison case stems from tweets posted between 2021 and 2025, which criticized the Pakistani navy’s position in human rights violations. The group of organizations expressed deep considerations over their ongoing “judicial harassment”. They acknowledged, “We’ve got obtained credible info indicating that the latest indictment and prison proceedings towards the couple… are supposed to impede their reputable authorized work and retaliate towards them for exercising their proper to freedom of expression.”

Imaan Mazari is the daughter of outstanding politician Shireen Mazari. Shireen Mazari was the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) celebration’s Senior Vice President earlier than she resigned from the celebration in 2023 following a collection of arrests by the Pakistani state.