The Canada Brief

World · 6 d ago

Supreme Court of Pakistan, Islamabad

Usman.pg · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Pakistan jails rights lawyers Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattha for 10 years

An antiterrorism court convicted the couple on terrorism-related charges over an October 2024 incident in which road barriers were removed along a route for England's touring cricket team.

The judge wrote that the act showed an intent to create terror, while conceding it was an "ordinary type of incident apparently of removal of a barrier."

— The judge's written verdict

The couple deny the charges and say they are targeted for their human rights work. Amnesty International called the verdict "an indictment of Pakistan's justice system."

Rights groups

Politically motivated

Government

Judiciary independent

Pakistan's law minister has repeatedly said the judiciary is independent. The defence says it will petition the Supreme Court.