Five United Nations experts have expressed alarm over the conviction of human rights activist Advocate Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband, Advocate Hadi Ali Chattha, on multiple charges in a case pertaining to controversial social media posts under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca).
On Jan 24, an Islamabad sessions court sentenced Ms Mazari and Mr Chattha to jail.
In a joint statement issued on Wednesday, UN special rapporteurs Margaret Satterthwaite, Ben Saul, Mary Lawlor, Irene Khan and Gina Romero noted that the two were convicted on multiple criminal charges, resulting in lengthy prison sentences “for simply exercising rights guaranteed by international human rights law”.
“Lawyers, like other individuals, are entitled to freedom of expression. The exercise of this right should never be conflated with criminal conduct, especially not terrorism,” they were quoted as saying, while also emphasising the vague definition of terrorism-related offences under Pakistan’s counter-terrorism framework.
“Doing so risks undermining and criminalising the work of lawyers and human rights defenders across Pakistan and has a chilling effect on civil society in the country,” the experts stated.
The experts observed that these were not the first prosecutions against the two lawyers, “who have been the subject of 10 criminal complaints since 2022, some of which remain pending”, but were never previously convicted of wrongdoing.
“This pattern of prosecutions suggests an arbitrary use of the legal system as an instrument of harassment and intimidation in order to punish them for their work advocating for victims of alleged human rights violations,” they added.
