An antiterrorism court in Pakistan has sentenced prominent human rights lawyers Imaan Mazari and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, to 10 years in prison on terrorism-related charges. Judge Tahir Abbas Sipra delivered the verdict on Thursday following a trial conducted inside Adiala prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
According to the court judgment, the couple was convicted of putting the security of the England and Wales Cricket team at risk, an action the judge stated demonstrated an intention to create a sense of terror. However, the ruling also noted that the underlying security breach was an ordinary incident involving the removal of a barrier.
The case stems from an October 2024 event in which the couple removed road barriers along a designated route for the touring England cricket team in Islamabad. Indicted on October 7 on accusations of obstructing police and inciting public interest, the pair pleaded not guilty. In their defense statements, they denied the charges, characterized themselves as prisoners of conscience, and asserted that they were being targeted to create a chilling effect against those who oppose oppression and injustice.
Family members and rights organizations quickly condemned the legal proceedings. Shireen Mazari, Imaan Mazari’s mother and a former human rights minister under imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, denounced the trial as a sham devoid of due process. She stated that the defendants were denied the right to defense counsel of their choice and withheld key legal documents, adding that the defense plans to appeal the verdict in the Supreme Court.
Shireen Mazari also noted via social media that the actual prison sentence totals 13 years to run concurrently, while criticizing the judicial process and contrasting the treatment with other political figures. Amnesty International echoed these concerns, with researcher Yasmine Ahmend describing the convictions as a failure of the judiciary to uphold fair trial principles and stating that anti-terrorism charges were being weaponized to penalize human rights advocacy.
Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, stated that the couple’s re-arrest demonstrated the authorities’ willingness to use the legal system against critical voices. Mazari and Chattha had been in custody since January 23 in connection with a separate case concerning social media posts. A lower court previously sentenced them each to 17 years under Pakistan’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, legislation critics argue is utilized to suppress online antigovernment dissent. Although the Supreme Court suspended those sentences, authorities re-arrested the couple immediately afterward in the security breach case.
Pakistan’s law minister, Azam Nazeer Tarar, has repeatedly maintained that the country’s judiciary operates independently.
