Human rights lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband, advocate Hadi Ali Chattha, were re-arrested on Thursday in a separate case, hours after the Supreme Court suspended their prison sentences and granted them bail in the controversial social media posts case.
Islamabad police personnel, led by the SSP Operations, reached Adiala Jail following the Supreme Court order and took the couple into custody in connection with a case registered at Kohsar Police Station. They were subsequently taken to the police station before being produced before an anti-terrorism court (ATC) later in the night.
ATC Judge Abul Hasnat Muhammad Zulqarnain rejected the police request for a 30-day physical remand and instead sent Mazari and Chattha to jail on judicial remand.
Former federal minister Shireen Mazari confirmed the re-arrest, saying attempts were being made to keep the couple behind bars. Imaan’s lawyer, Riasat Ali Azad, also confirmed that a large contingent of Islamabad police had taken the two into custody.
Earlier on Thursday, a two-member Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim suspended the sentences imposed on Mazari and Chattha in the separate social media posts case. The court granted them bail against surety bonds of Rs200,000 each, with the relief remaining in place pending a final decision by the Islamabad High Court.
The couple had been sentenced in January to a total of 17 years in prison on multiple charges under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act over social media posts that prosecutors alleged contained anti-state material. Mazari and Chattha have denied the allegations and challenged their convictions before the IHC.
During Thursday’s Supreme Court proceedings, their counsel Faisal Siddiqui raised concerns about repeated delays in deciding their applications for suspension of sentence before the IHC. The Supreme Court had previously directed the high court to decide the matter expeditiously.
“What happened at the High Court came as a surprise to us,” Siddiqui told the court.
“These are the days of surprises,” Justice Afghan remarked.
The Supreme Court ultimately suspended the sentences and ordered the couple’s release on bail while their appeals remain pending before the IHC.
Their release, however, was short-lived. The subsequent arrest relates to the separate Kohsar Police Station case, in which Mazari and Chattha are accused of offences connected with a protest outside the Islamabad High Court. The allegations in that case remain subject to judicial proceedings.