Sentences handed down in Adiala prison trial

An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan imposed 10-year prison sentences on human rights lawyers Imaan Mazari-Hazir and her husband Hadi Ali Chattha on 29 October 2026, Human Rights Watch reported on 30 October. The trial was held inside Adiala prison in Rawalpindi.

The lawyers were accused of obstructing police at a road closure in Islamabad in October 2024. Reuters reporting describes the case as a security-breach case alleging they endangered an international cricket team’s security plans by staging a protest and blocking a road. The court also imposed further concurrent terms for obstructing or assaulting public servants, reported by Human Rights Watch as three years and by Reuters as additional sentences of one year and two years on separate charges.

A long-running legal battle

Mazari and Chattha had been in custody since their arrest on 23 January 2026 in a separate case over social media posts prosecutors said were anti-state; a sessions court sentenced each to 17 years the next day under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, Reuters reported. The Supreme Court suspended those sentences on 17 September 2026 and ordered their release on bail, but police rearrested them the same day in the security-breach case.

On 30 September 2026, United Nations human rights experts called for their immediate release and said successive proceedings appeared intended to punish them for their views and human rights advocacy, according to Human Rights Watch.

Condemnation and an appeal promised

Human Rights Watch called on Pakistani authorities to quash the convictions and release the couple. Mazari’s mother said, according to Reuters, that the family would file a petition against the verdict in the Supreme Court. Human Rights Watch notes the couple have represented journalists, political and human rights activists, people facing blasphemy charges, victims of sexual violence and enforced disappearances, and prisoners facing the death penalty.

Sources: Human Rights Watch | Reuters via SRN News