Five United Nations (UN) experts on Wednesday expressed alarm over the conviction of lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband, Hadi Ali Chatta.

Last month, an Islamabad sessions court had sentenced Imaan and Hadi to a total of 17 years in prison on multiple charges in a case pertaining to controversial social media posts.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, UN special rapporteurs Margaret Satterthwaite, Ben Saul, Mary Lawlor, Irene Khan and Gina Romero noted that the two were convicted on multiple criminal charges, which resulted in lengthy prison sentences “for simply exercising rights guaranteed by international human rights law”.

“Lawyers, like other individuals, are entitled to freedom of expression. The exercise of this right should never be conflated with criminal conduct, especially not terrorism,” they were quoted as saying, while also emphasising the vague definition of terrorism-related offences under Pakistan’s counter-terrorism framework.

“Doing so risks undermining and criminalising the work of lawyers and human rights defenders across Pakistan and has a chilling effect on civil society in the country,” the experts said.

According to the statement, the experts observed that these were not the first prosecutions against the two lawyers, “who have been the subject of 10 criminal complaints since 2022, some of which remain pending” but were never previously convicted of wrongdoing.

“This pattern of prosecutions suggests an arbitrary use of the legal system as an instrument of harassment and intimidation in order to punish them for their work advocating for victims of alleged human rights violations,” they said.

“States must ensure lawyers are not subject to prosecution for any professional action, and that lawyers are not identified with their clients,” the UN experts said.

“International standards provide a set of procedural guarantees that must be made available to persons charged with a criminal offence, but these appear to have been undermined in this case,” the experts said.

“These violations seriously threaten the fairness of the trial and conviction,” they added.

UN special rapporteurs are independent experts mandated by the UN Human Rights Council to report their findings. They do not speak in the name of the United Nations itself.

According to the statement, the UN experts “have contacted Pakistan regarding their concerns”.

On January 29, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and its partner organisations had published a joint statement condemning the “arbitrary arrest” and conviction of the two lawyers and called for their release.

Separately, the United Nations Human Rights Office also said that the conviction and sentencing of the couple “following fair trial concerns” was deeply disturbing”.

The European Union’s (EU) Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Anouar El Anouni had also raised concerns over the conviction of Imaan and Hadi. The EU official said their convictions “over social media activity goes against freedom of expression and independence of lawyers”.

“These are not only key democratic principles but also part of [Pakistan’s] international human rights commitments,” Anouni said.

Additional input from AFP