ATC directs jail authorities to present Imaan Mazari, husband via video link tomorrow

• ATC adjourns proceedings and fixes next hearing for Saturday.
• ATC directs jail authorities to ensure video-link appearance.
• Mazari and husband remain on judicial remand in Adiala jail.
  

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Friday ordered authorities to present lawyer and human rights activist Imaan Mazari and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, via video link in a case registered against them at the Secretariat police station.

ATC Judge Tahir Abbas Supra heard the case registered at the Secretariat police station against Mazari and Chattha.

The court had summoned both accused in person on Friday. However, Adiala jail authorities did not produce Mazari and Chatha before the court.

ATC judge adjourned proceedings until Saturday and directed the jail authorities to ensure that Mazari and Chattha appeared before the court through video link.

“I am fixing the case for tomorrow. Both should be produced through video link,” he remarked.

Last week, Mazari and her husband were arrested and sent back to Adiala jail on judicial remand by an ATC, hours after the Supreme Court had suspended their sentences and granted them bail in a separate case.

Islamabad police sources said the couple was arrested in connection with a case which includes charges of anti-state narrative, incitement and interference in government affairs.

On the same day, the Supreme Court had suspended the couple’s sentences in a case related to controversial tweets and granted them bail against surety bonds worth Rs200,000 each, until the final decision on the case pending before the Islamabad High Court.

In January, a district and sessions court in Islamabad had sentenced Mazari and Chattha to 17 years in prison each under different sections of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, just a day after their arrest in another case.

The couple subsequently moved the IHC against the sentence in early February.

The couple had originally been booked by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency under Sections 9, 10, 11 and 26 of Peca, with an FIR alleging they had attempted to incite divisions on linguistic grounds through social media posts.