Jurists | Pakistan

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and its partner organisations on Thursday published a joint statement condemning the “arbitrary arrest” and conviction of lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chatta, and called for their release. Imaan and Hadi were sentenced on January 24 under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act’s (Peca) sections 9 (glorification of an offence), 10 (cyberterrorism), and 26-A (false and fake information). They were handed a total of 17 years in jail, with the longest sentence being 10 years, and fined Rs36 million each collectively. The joint statement released on Thursday — signed by the Balochistan Bar Council, the Hyderabad Bar Association, the Karachi Bar Association, the Sindh High Court Bar Association and other global bodies — condemned the “arbitrary arrest and subsequent conviction” of Imaan and Hadi, calling for their immediate release and measures to ensure the conviction was set aside. “Both lawyers have faced targeted reprisals, including harassment th...