Twenty-three international civil society organisations, led by Amnesty International, have jointly condemned the sentencing of Pakistani human rights lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha, calling on the government to release them immediately and unconditionally and to have their convictions quashed.
The joint statement, issued on Friday 6 November, describes the convictions as a significant escalation in what the signatories call the extensive misuse of Pakistan's criminal justice system against the two lawyers. It raises serious concerns about the use of anti-terrorism legislation to punish lawyers for carrying out what the organisations describe as permissible human rights work.
An anti-terrorism court in Islamabad sentenced the couple on 29 October to ten years' imprisonment under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 and three years under the Pakistan Penal Code. Each was also fined Rs100,000. The sentences are to run concurrently, meaning the couple face a decade behind bars unless the convictions are overturned on appeal.
The case was registered at Islamabad's Aabpara police station and arises from an incident in October 2024, when the lawyers allegedly removed security barriers placed on a road in the capital during the movement of the visiting England cricket team. Prosecutors said the act threatened national security and interfered with state affairs. The couple were convicted under Section 7(h) of the Anti-Terrorism Act and Sections 186 and 353 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The signatory organisations also questioned the fairness of the proceedings, noting that the trial was conducted inside Rawalpindi's Adiala prison and, in their view, failed to meet international fair trial standards. They said the use of overbroad anti-terrorism legislation in a case about the alleged removal of road barriers raised questions about the proportionality of the charges.
Among the signatories are the Alliance for Lawyers at Risk, Defense Sans Frontiere, the New York City Bar Association, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, the Geneva Bar Association, Lawyers for Lawyers and PEN Norway. In their statement, the organisations said the convictions must be seen against a series of legal cases brought against the two lawyers over the past year.
That history includes a separate case under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, in which the couple were sentenced in January this year to prison terms of between ten and seventeen years over social media posts that criticised the military and expressed solidarity with Baloch and Pashtun activists. On 17 September, the Supreme Court granted them bail and suspended those sentences, only for the two to be arrested again the same day under the separate anti-terrorism charges that led to the October verdict. Amnesty International condemned that re-arrest at the time, accusing the authorities of misusing the justice system to target critical voices.
The lawyers have now taken their challenge to the higher courts. On Friday, the same day the joint statement was issued, Mazari and Chattha filed appeals in the Islamabad High Court against the anti-terrorism court's judgment. The appeals, filed by advocates Faisal Siddiqui, Riasat Ali Azad and Zainab Janjua under Section 25 of the Anti-Terrorism Act read with Section 410 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, seek the release of the couple and the setting aside of their convictions.
Amnesty International had already criticised the verdict in the days after it was handed down. Yasmine Ahmed, the organisation's senior director for regional human rights impact, described the convictions as an indictment of Pakistan's justice system and alleged that anti-terrorism laws were being misused to silence human rights defenders and suppress dissent.
What happens next will turn on the Islamabad High Court, where the appeals are now pending. If the court accepts the challenge, it will examine whether the trial and the sentences met the requirements of the law, including the questions the rights groups have raised about the fairness of proceedings held inside a prison. The organisations, for their part, have said they will continue to press for the couple's release and for an end to the use of anti-terrorism law against lawyers. For now, Mazari and Chattha remain in custody, and the case has become one of the most closely watched tests of how Pakistan's courts handle dissent and the defence of human rights.
