Responding to the cancellation of bail of lawyers and human rights defenders Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha and an order to immediately arrest them in a bogus case relating to “anti-state” tweets, Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia, said:
“This baseless trial of Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha is a blatant abuse of the justice system. Pakistani authorities must end the judicial harassment and coercive tactics used to silence dissent and intimidate those who defend human rights.
“The ‘cyber terrorism’ and other trumped-up charges under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act against Imaan and Hadi are politically motivated and amount to criminalizing the right to freedom of expression. This rushed process has been riddled with glaring violations of the right to fair trial, denying the accused the right to attend proceedings and challenge evidence.
Pakistani authorities must end the judicial harassment and coercive tactics used to silence dissent and intimidate those who defend human rights.
Babu Ram Pant, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for South Asia
“The charges have been brought against Imaan Mazari and Hadi Chattha solely for the peaceful exercise of their human rights and carrying out their professional duties. Authorities must immediately drop all charges against them and rescind the orders for their arrest. The authorities must end this miscarriage of justice, uphold the rule of law, and ensure that human rights defenders can freely exercise their human rights and carry out their work without any fear of reprisals.”
Background
A case was filed against Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha on 12 August 2025 under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, alleging that Imaan had posted content on her X account from 2021 to 16 April 2025 “targeting important State Institutions of Pakistan” under sections relating to “cyber terrorism”, “hate speech” and “false and fake information”. Hadi faces the same charges merely for sharing and reposting Imaan’s posts. Hadi was briefly arrested on 29 October 2025 in relation to the case. In December, they filed a petition to the Islamabad High Court for transfer of their case to another judge alleging instances of bias and procedural irregularities. The trial, however, continued, and on 15 January 2026, the presiding judge cancelled Imaan and Hadi’s bail and on 16 January ordered their arrest within 24 hours.
