Imprisoned for Their Words: Lawyers Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha
Imprisoned for Their Words: Lawyers Imaan Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha
Two of Pakistan’s best-known human rights lawyers, Imaan Mazari-Hazir and her husband Hadi Ali Chattha, are serving long prison terms for what amounts to a handful of social media posts. Amnesty International has made their case the subject of an urgent action, calling for their convictions to be quashed and for their immediate and unconditional release.
A trial in a single day
According to Amnesty, the couple were arrested on 23 January 2026 — despite having been granted pre-arrest bail two days earlier — and, the very next day, sentenced by an Islamabad district and sessions court to terms ranging from 10 to 17 years. The convictions came under Pakistan’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), on provisions covering “cyber terrorism,” the glorification of an offence, and the sharing of “fake and false” information.
The charges, Amnesty says, were linked primarily to posts on X in which Mazari-Hazir expressed solidarity with Baloch and Pashtun activists and criticised the policies of Pakistan’s military. Chattha was prosecuted largely for resharing her posts. Amnesty described the trial as conducted with “unusual haste,” with the defendants repeatedly denied the chance to cross-examine witnesses or present evidence.
Appeals that never move
Eight months after the sentencing, their appeal had still not been heard in substance. Amnesty noted that on 12 May, Pakistan’s Supreme Court directed the Islamabad High Court to decide the couple’s sentence-suspension pleas within two weeks — a deadline that passed without a substantial hearing. The rights group warned that such delays could themselves violate the right to appeal, and that procedural obstacles were being used to prolong the couple’s detention.
Amnesty and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan have both raised alarm over Mazari-Hazir’s deteriorating health in custody, describing prison medical facilities as inadequate and reporting that she was repeatedly denied access to urgent care.
A chilling precedent
The case has drawn condemnation well beyond Amnesty. A coalition of international legal organisations — including the International Commission of Jurists, Lawyers for Lawyers, and the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute — issued a joint statement warning that prosecuting lawyers for online speech sets a “chilling precedent” for the entire legal profession. Within Pakistan, bar associations held protests and strikes, and the HRCP called the sentencing symptomatic of a shrinking civic space.
The prosecution turns on PECA, the cybercrime law that Pakistani authorities have increasingly used against journalists, activists, and now lawyers — the same legal machinery that underpins the country’s recent restrictions on the press. What makes the Mazari-Hazir and Chattha case stand out is not the novelty of the tactic but its target: two lawyers, jailed for a decade or more, for words posted online in defence of others.
Amnesty’s demand is unambiguous — that the convictions be overturned, that the couple be released immediately and unconditionally, and that, until then, both be given the medical care they need. Its urgent action invites the public to press the Pakistani authorities to do so.
Two of Pakistan’s best-known human rights lawyers, Imaan Mazari-Hazir and her husband Hadi Ali Chattha, are serving long prison terms for what amounts to a handful of social media posts. Amnesty International has made their case the subject of an urgent action, calling for their convictions to be quashed and for their immediate and unconditional release.
A trial in a single day
According to Amnesty, the couple were arrested on 23 January 2026 — despite having been granted pre-arrest bail two days earlier — and, the very next day, sentenced by an Islamabad district and sessions court to terms ranging from 10 to 17 years. The convictions came under Pakistan’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), on provisions covering “cyber terrorism,” the glorification of an offence, and the sharing of “fake and false” information.
The charges, Amnesty says, were linked primarily to posts on X in which Mazari-Hazir expressed solidarity with Baloch and Pashtun activists and criticised the policies of Pakistan’s military. Chattha was prosecuted largely for resharing her posts. Amnesty described the trial as conducted with “unusual haste,” with the defendants repeatedly denied the chance to cross-examine witnesses or present evidence.
Appeals that never move
Eight months after the sentencing, their appeal had still not been heard in substance. Amnesty noted that on 12 May, Pakistan’s Supreme Court directed the Islamabad High Court to decide the couple’s sentence-suspension pleas within two weeks — a deadline that passed without a substantial hearing. The rights group warned that such delays could themselves violate the right to appeal, and that procedural obstacles were being used to prolong the couple’s detention.
Amnesty and the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan have both raised alarm over Mazari-Hazir’s deteriorating health in custody, describing prison medical facilities as inadequate and reporting that she was repeatedly denied access to urgent care.
A chilling precedent
The case has drawn condemnation well beyond Amnesty. A coalition of international legal organisations — including the International Commission of Jurists, Lawyers for Lawyers, and the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute — issued a joint statement warning that prosecuting lawyers for online speech sets a “chilling precedent” for the entire legal profession. Within Pakistan, bar associations held protests and strikes, and the HRCP called the sentencing symptomatic of a shrinking civic space.
The prosecution turns on PECA, the cybercrime law that Pakistani authorities have increasingly used against journalists, activists, and now lawyers — the same legal machinery that underpins the country’s recent restrictions on the press. What makes the Mazari-Hazir and Chattha case stand out is not the novelty of the tactic but its target: two lawyers, jailed for a decade or more, for words posted online in defence of others.
Amnesty’s demand is unambiguous — that the convictions be overturned, that the couple be released immediately and unconditionally, and that, until then, both be given the medical care they need. Its urgent action invites the public to press the Pakistani authorities to do so.