An anti-terrorism court issued the decade-long terms alongside 200,000 Pakistani Rupee fines over an alleged October 2024 security breach involving the England cricket team's convoy route. The defendants, who denied all accusations, have remained detained in Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail despite earlier Supreme Court bail interventions in separate cybercrime cases. Rights organizations condemned the legal process, noting the hearings were moved inside the prison facility where the accused were held behind a cage-like barrier.
Key points
The harsh sentences represent an escalation in the legal harassment faced by prominent hu…: The harsh sentences represent an escalation in the legal harassment faced by prominent human rights lawyers in Pakistan.
Repeated rearrests following Supreme Court bail orders demonstrate the state's determinat…: Repeated rearrests following Supreme Court bail orders demonstrate the state's determination to keep critical legal advocates confined.
International rights groups view the restricted prison trial as a severe compromise of du…: International rights groups view the restricted prison trial as a severe compromise of due process and basic judicial transparency.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
- Published
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has sentenced human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari and her husband Hadi Ali Chattha to 10 years in prison, over an alleged security breach during a cricket tour in 2024.
The couple were accused of removing road barriers and obstructing police officers in Islamabad - charges that both have denied.
Mazari and Chattha were previously sentenced to up to 17 years in prison for social media posts criticising the military.
Pakistan's Supreme Court had suspended those sentences in August, but police re-arrested the couple before they could be released. They have been imprisoned in Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail for the past several months.
This latest case concerns an incident on 25 October 2024, when England's cricket team was touring Pakistan.
Prosecutors accused Mazari and Chattha of removing barriers from a road designated for the team's security convoy and obstructing police officers at Zero Point, a major cloverleaf road junction in Islamabad.
They were each sentenced to 10 years in prison under the Anti-Terrorism Act, as well as additional one-year and two-year terms for obstructing and using…
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