Rights groups seek release of Imaan Mazari, Hadi Chattha after sentencing
More than 20 international organisations, Amnesty International among them, ask the government to free the couple 'immediately and unconditionally' after 10 years each.
More than 20 international human rights organisations, Amnesty International among them, called on the government on Friday to release human rights lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, eight days after an anti-terrorism court sentenced the couple in a security breach case.
Dawn reported that the groups asked for the two to be freed "immediately and unconditionally". The statement was issued on Friday, November 6.
The anti-terrorism court sentenced Mazari-Hazir and Chattha to 10 years in prison each in the security breach case on October 29, Dawn reported. The court handed each of them an additional one-year sentence and a fine of Rs50,000 under Section 186, which covers obstructing a public servant in the discharge of public functions.
Amnesty International was the only signatory named in Dawn's account, which put the number of organisations at over 20. The rest were not listed in the report.
IANS Live reported that global groups had condemned the sentencing of the two, whom it described as Pakistani human rights lawyers. Its report did not give the prison terms, the fines or the section under which they were convicted.
Neither report carried a response from the federal government or from the prosecution. Neither stated which city the anti-terrorism court sits in, or when the security breach at the centre of the case took place.
Dawn described Mazari-Hazir as a human rights lawyer. The two were sentenced together in the same case.
How the reports differ
Dawn named Amnesty International, put the number of signatories at over 20, and carried the terms of the October 29 sentence: 10 years each, plus a one-year term and a Rs50,000 fine each under Section 186. Dawn also carried the groups' demand for release "immediately and unconditionally". IANS Live reported only that global groups had condemned the sentencing of two Pakistani human rights lawyers, without the length of the sentences, the fines or the section involved.
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