Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattha Each Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison

An anti-terrorism court in Islamabad has sentenced human rights lawyers Imaan Mazari and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, to 10 years in prison each over the alleged removal of road barriers during the England cricket team’s visit to Pakistan in 2024.

Judge Tahir Abbas Sipra announced the verdict after a trial held inside Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. The court also handed down additional one-year and two-year sentences for obstructing and assaulting public servants. All three sentences are to run concurrently.

In its judgment, the court said the couple had put the England and Wales Cricket team’s security at risk. The judge wrote that their actions showed an intention to “create a sense of terror”, according to a copy of the ruling obtained by AFP.

The judgment described the October 25, 2024, incident as “a very common nature ordinary type of incident apparently of removal of a barrier”. Mazari and Chattha denied the charges.

In statements seen by Reuters, the couple described themselves as “prisoners of conscience” and said they were being targeted for their human rights work. Their defence document said the case was intended to deter people from opposing “tyranny, oppression and injustice”.

Mazari, a prominent critic of Pakistan’s military, has represented journalists, ethnic minorities and families of people allegedly subjected to enforced disappearance. Human rights groups say the prosecution relates to her advocacy and criticism of alleged abuses, particularly in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Former human rights minister Shireen Mazari, Imaan’s mother, called the proceedings a “sham trial without any due process”. She told Reuters that the couple were not allowed to defend themselves through their own lawyer and did not receive key legal documents. She said the defence would challenge the verdict in the Supreme Court.

Amnesty International condemned the convictions, saying the proceedings failed to uphold the couple’s right to a fair trial. Its senior director for regional human rights impact, Yasmine Ahmed, called the case “an indictment of Pakistan’s justice system” and said the judiciary had failed to protect the right to a fair trial.

Ahmed said the lawyers were initially barred from attending hearings in person and were later kept behind a “cage-like structure” during proceedings inside the prison. She said the terrorism charges appeared to punish the couple for their advocacy and called for their release and the withdrawal of all charges.

Front Line Defenders called the use of terrorism charges over the alleged removal of a traffic barrier, followed by an accelerated jail trial, a “gross misuse of counter-terrorism law”. It said the case was part of successive proceedings keeping the couple in detention, despite a Supreme Court order granting them bail in a separate case. The organisation urged authorities to release them, dismiss the cases and stop using anti-terrorism and cybercrime laws to target dissent.