Hadi Ali Chatta | Pakistan

Jurist’s body Lawyers for Lawyers published an open letter on Wednesday condemning the “ongoing judicial harassment” of lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chatta and urging the government to drop the cases against them. The National Cybercrime Investigation Agency (NCIA) had registered a case against Mazari and Chattha, accusing the two of attempting to incite divisions on linguistic grounds through social media posts and of creating the impression that the armed forces were engaged in terrorism within the country. Their lawyer, appointed by the court, refused to cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses during the most recent hearing on Tuesday, saying that he could not “ask questions dictated” to him. In a press release, Lawyers for Lawyers, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, the Law Society of England and Wales, the International Commission of Jurists and the International Observatory of Lawyers at Risk expressed concern over the case. “We have received credible informa...