Pakistan court sentences human rights lawyer couple to 10 years in prison over cricket convoy incident

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has sentenced human rights lawyers Imaan Mazari and her husband Hadi Ali Chattha to 10 years in prison over an alleged security breach during England's cricket tour of Pakistan in 2024. Prosecutors accused the couple of removing barriers from a road designated for the touring team's security convoy and obstructing police officers at Zero Point, a major cloverleaf road junction in Islamabad, on 25 October 2024. Both have denied the charges. They were each sentenced to 10 years under the Anti-Terrorism Act, along with additional one-year and two-year terms for obstructing and using force against public servants. All sentences will run concurrently, and the court fined each of them 200,000 Pakistani rupees (£541; $723). The couple were already being held in Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail, where they have spent the past several months. They were arrested on 23 January in a separate case involving an alleged altercation outside the Islamabad High Court, and a day later were sentenced to up to 17 years in prison under Pakistan's Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act over social media posts criticising the military. Pakistan's Supreme Court suspended those sentences in August and granted them bail on 17 September, but they were re-arrested the same day in connection with a separate case over a protest in March 2025, in which they were accused of chanting anti-government slogans and blocking roads. In statements recorded during the trial, the couple described themselves as prisoners of conscience who had faced state persecution. "I am being punished for not only supporting my wife's work and activism, but for choosing this path of resisting injustice as our life journey together," Chattha said in his statement to Dawn News. The couple had earlier said they were "being made an example to further cement the chilling effect against those who stand (or want to stand) against tyranny, oppression, and injustice". Amnesty International criticised the proceedings, saying the couple were denied an open and fair trial, and raised concerns that the hearings were moved inside the prison, where Mazari and Chattha were kept behind a cage-like structure. "These convictions are an indictment of Pakistan's justice system," said Yasmine Ahmed, the organisation's senior director for regional human rights impact. "Imaan and Hadi are being targeted solely because of their refusal to stop their fearless human rights work and for exercising their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly." Mazari and Chattha are prominent human rights lawyers who have represented activists, journalists and marginalised communities subjected to enforced disappearances. Mazari's mother, Shireen Mazari, is a former human rights minister who served in the government of former prime minister Imran Khan. The couple's convictions have drawn repeated criticism from international human rights organisations, which have raised concerns about the treatment of lawyers and activists in Pakistan.