South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR), a regional network of Human Rights Defenders, strongly condemns the continuous harassment meted out to Pakistani human rights lawyers Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattah by weaponising the judicial system.
On 29 October 2026, Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Judge Tahir Abbas Sipra at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi announced the verdict against the Mazari and Chattah, imposing 10-year sentences under Section 7 (h) of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, along with additional one-year and two-year sentences under Sections 186 and 353 of the Pakistan Penal Code for obstructing and using criminal force against public servants. The sentences will run concurrently. The court also imposed a financial penalty of 200,000 Pakistani rupees on both of them. This sentence is linked to an incident on 25 October 2024, when these two lawyers removed the road barriers in Islamabad along a designated route for the touring England Cricket team ‘putting the security of the team at risk’. Both Mazari and Chattah had denied these charges.
Reports indicate that this particular trial had taken place inside Adiala jail, Rawalpindi, where Mazari and Chattah had been kept inside a cage-like structure. They described themselves as ‘prisoners of conscience’ alleging that their constitutional rights to fair trial, due process and human dignity had been violated. Shireen Mazari, the mother of Imaan Mazari who served as the human rights minister in the government of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, had also criticised it as a ‘sham trial without due processes’ stating that the two accused lawyers were not permitted to defend themselves through their own lawyers and were not provided with key documents. The defence had also challenged the jail trial before the High Court and the Supreme Court of Islamabad.
Both Mazari and Chattah, recipients of the prestigious 2026 Ludovic Trarieux International Human Rights Prize, have been in custody since 23 January 2026. They received a sentence of 17 years each in January in a separate case with regard to alleged anti-state social media posts. On 17 September, the Supreme Court suspended those sentences and ordered their release pending the outcome of their appeals. However, the police of Islamabad re-arrested them within hours concerning this case of breach of security.
Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattah have represented cases related to blasphemy, violation of the freedom of expression and press freedom, sexual violence, enforced disappearances, and prisoners sentenced to capital punishment. Throughout their career they have represented people from vulnerable and marginalised religious and ethnic communities. The international recognition of their work in June 2026 highlights the deliberate and comprehensive failure of the Government of Pakistan to provide a conducive professional environment for human rights activists; to ensure the rights and freedoms of the people as enshrined in the constitution and their inability to maintain the independence of the judiciary.
SAHR and other human rights organisations have been strongly urging the Government of Pakistan since January 2026 to release Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattah. Instead, it has been continuously conducting ad hoc legal procedures to harass these two human rights lawyers.
On behalf of the membership of South Asians for Human Rights
Dr Roshmi Goswami
Co-Chairperson
Dr P. Saravanamuttu
Bureau Member