GENEVA, Switzerland: Five UN special rapporteurs on Wednesday condemned the conviction and lengthy jail sentences imposed on a prominent rights activist and her fellow lawyer husband in Pakistan over “anti-state” social media posts.
Imaan Mazari, a 32-year-old lawyer and vocal critic of Pakistan’s military, “disseminated highly offensive” content on X, according to an Islamabad court.
She and her husband Hadi Ali Chattha were jailed on January 25, with a court statement saying they “will have to remain in jail for 10 years.”
The UN experts said they had been jailed for “simply exercising rights guaranteed by international human rights law.”
“Lawyers, like other individuals, are entitled to freedom of expression. The exercise of this right should never be conflated with criminal conduct, especially not terrorism,” they said in a joint statement.
