By Mubasher Bukhari
LAHORE, Oct 29 (Reuters) – A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Thursday sentenced prominent human rights lawyers Imaan Mazari and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, to 10 years in prison in a security breach case, her family said.
The judge announced the verdict at Adiala Jail, where the couple have been held since earlier this year.
The court also imposed additional sentences of one year and two years on the couple on separate charges of obstructing and assaulting government servants. The sentences will run concurrently.
Mazari, who has won international recognition for speaking out against the disappearances of political activists and for defending minorities and journalists, and Chattha have drawn support from rights groups that have condemned their imprisonment.
The couple were accused of endangering an international cricket team’s security plans by staging a protest and blocking a road in a 2024 case.
In statements seen by Reuters, they denied the charges. “We are prisoners of conscience,” they said, adding that they were being targeted for their human rights work.
Pakistan’s law minister, Azam Nazeer Tarar, has repeatedly said the country’s judiciary is independent.
Mazari’s mother, Shireen Mazari, who served as human rights minister in jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s cabinet, told Reuters that Mazari and Chattha “were not permitted to defend themselves through their own lawyer, and were not provided with key legal documents.”
The public prosecutor did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Mazari and Chattha have been in custody since their arrest on January 23 in a separate case over social media posts that prosecutors said were anti-state.
A sessions court sentenced them each to 17 years the next day under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act. Although the Supreme Court suspended those sentences on September 17, police re-arrested them the same day in the security breach case.
“We will file a petition against the verdict in the Supreme Court,” Mazari’s mother said.
(Reporting by Mubasher BukhariEditing by Ros Russell)
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