Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattha sentenced to 10 years in security breach case
An anti-terrorism court jailed the lawyer couple on Thursday over a 2024 barrier case. What they were accused of, what they said in court and what comes next.
Human rights lawyer Imaan Mazari and her husband, lawyer Hadi Ali Chattha, were sentenced to 10 years in prison each on Thursday, 29 October, by an anti-terrorism court hearing their case inside Adiala jail in Rawalpindi. Judge Tahir Abbas Sipra announced the verdict two days after reserving it.
The couple deny every charge and say they are being punished for their legal work.
What were Imaan Mazari and Hadi Chattha convicted of?
The case dates back to October 2024, when an international cricket team was in Pakistan for the Pakistan-England Test in Rawalpindi. The prosecution said the two removed security barriers near Zero Point in Islamabad on the team’s route and attacked police officers on duty.
According to the court’s order as read out, the main sentence of 10 years and a Rs100,000 fine each comes under the Anti-Terrorism Act. They were also given two years and a Rs50,000 fine under Section 353 (assaulting a public servant) and one year and another Rs50,000 fine under Section 186 (obstructing a public servant). The sentences run together, so the total time is 10 years, and the court allowed them the benefit of Section 382, which counts time already spent in custody.
The prosecution brought seven witnesses. The court had appointed a state counsel, Atif Mehmood, to cross-examine them.
What did the couple say in court?
In their final statements on 27 October, both rejected the case. Hadi Chattha called himself “a prisoner of conscience” and said he had only stepped in to protect his wife. Imaan Mazari told the court they were tried while kept in a cage that stopped them speaking properly to their lawyers, and said: “We are being made an example.”
She also said police had admitted in court that the cricket team reached the stadium by another route, and that she was hurt by an iron rod that day, submitting a hospital report.
Their lawyer, Aimal Mandokhail, had asked the judge to hold off on the verdict because their petitions against the trial were still pending before the Supreme Court and the Islamabad High Court, along with a request to move the case to another court. The judge went ahead.
How did we get here?
This is the couple’s second long sentence this year:
- 23 January: arrested in a case over a protest outside the Islamabad High Court.
- 24 January: a sessions court sentenced them to a combined 17 years under the electronic crimes law (PECA) over their posts on X. Lawyers and UN experts criticised the verdict.
- 17 September: the Supreme Court suspended those sentences and ordered their release on bail. Within hours, police re-arrested them in the security breach case.
- 7 October: indicted by the anti-terrorism court; they pleaded not guilty.
- 29 October: convicted and sentenced to 10 years.
What happens next?
The verdict can be appealed, and the couple’s legal team is expected to go to the Islamabad High Court. Their earlier petition to the Supreme Court, filed on 26 October against the high court’s refusal to stop the trial, is still pending. Watch for the date that petition is fixed for hearing, because it now decides whether the conviction itself is reviewed quickly or joins the long queue of appeals.
