Pakistani court jails rights activist and husband for 10 years

Imaan Mazari, a 32-year-old lawyer and vocal critic of Pakistan's military, "disseminated highly offensive" content on her X account, according to an Islamabad court.

A written court statement said Mazari and her husband, fellow lawyer Hadi Ali Chattha, "will have to remain in jail for 10 years".

They were handed prison terms on three charges -- including "cyber terrorism" and "intentional dissemination of false and fake information" -- to run concurrently, the document said.

Their sentencing came a day after Pakistani police arrested the couple as they headed to a court hearing in the capital.

Videos circulating on social media showed police vans escorting a bar association vehicle carrying Mazari to court before it was stopped at an underpass, where masked security officials prevented journalists from filming the arrest.
'Severe repression'
Mazari is the daughter of Pakistan's former minister for human rights, Shireen Mazari, while her late father was the South Asian country's top paediatrician.

She is a pro bono lawyer on some of the most sensitive cases, including the enforced disappearances of ethnic Balochs, as well as defending the community's top activist, Mahrang Baloch.

She also represented those accused of blasphemy -- an incendiary charge in Pakistan -- as well as Afghans who face crackdowns by the authorities.

Senate opposition leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas said the two lawyers were convicted "solely for social media posts criticizing what they saw as state abuses and advocating for marginalized communities".

"This ruling sends a chilling message that peaceful advocacy and criticism of power will be met with severe repression," he wrote in a post on X.

On Friday, Syed Wajid Ali Shah Gillani, president of the Islamabad High Court Bar Association, alleged in a video statement that police manhandled the couple before arresting them.

Imaan Mazari told AFP on Tuesday that she and her husband feared arrest over undisclosed police cases, a move she said would be a "grave injustice".

The couple had been confined to the Islamabad High Court's premises since Tuesday, spending nights at a lawyers' association building, after being granted bail in a cybercrime case.

Changes to the constitution and hasty legislation passed by parliament have pushed Pakistan towards tighter state control, with diminishing political and civil rights.