Seven dudes just got life for tweets, and YouTube takes. An anti-terrorism court in Islamabad handed down convictions to YouTuber Adil Raja, journalists Wajahat Saeed Khan, Sabir Shakir, and Shaheen Sehbai, anchor Haider Raza Mehdi, analyst Moeed Pirzada, and ex-army guy Akbar Hussain for inciting violence and spreading hate against state institutions during the May 2023 riots. Judge Tahir Abbas Sipra gave them all two consecutive life terms plus a massive fine, trying them in absentia while they hid out abroad. He used anti-terror laws for what they called digital terrorism.
The charges were serious, covering waging war against the state and criminal conspiracy under specific penal code sections. They also got hit with abetting mutiny. Not paying the fine means an extra six months inside. The judge let station house officers arrest them on sight and toss them in jail.
This whole thing traces back to the chaos after Imran Khan got booted as prime minister and later arrested. Protests exploded, the government shut down the internet, and police cracked down hard. These seven were accused of fueling that fire online.
They are not taking it quietly from their overseas hideouts. Sabir Shakir called the case bogus on Twitter, saying he will keep pushing for democracy and rights. Adil Raja shot back that telling the truth now gets labeled as digital terrorism in Pakistan.
This is part of a bigger pattern. Military courts already sentenced over twenty people for the same riots, which Amnesty International slammed as unfair. Human Rights Watch points out that the government keeps using anti-terror laws to crush dissent, something that ramped up after Khan's situation. Raja himself was already officially banned as a terrorist by the cabinet last December.
They have a week to appeal to the Islamabad High Court. The prosecution brought two dozen witnesses to make their case, with a full written judgment explaining the reasoning still to come.
The charges were serious, covering waging war against the state and criminal conspiracy under specific penal code sections. They also got hit with abetting mutiny. Not paying the fine means an extra six months inside. The judge let station house officers arrest them on sight and toss them in jail.
This whole thing traces back to the chaos after Imran Khan got booted as prime minister and later arrested. Protests exploded, the government shut down the internet, and police cracked down hard. These seven were accused of fueling that fire online.
They are not taking it quietly from their overseas hideouts. Sabir Shakir called the case bogus on Twitter, saying he will keep pushing for democracy and rights. Adil Raja shot back that telling the truth now gets labeled as digital terrorism in Pakistan.
This is part of a bigger pattern. Military courts already sentenced over twenty people for the same riots, which Amnesty International slammed as unfair. Human Rights Watch points out that the government keeps using anti-terror laws to crush dissent, something that ramped up after Khan's situation. Raja himself was already officially banned as a terrorist by the cabinet last December.
They have a week to appeal to the Islamabad High Court. The prosecution brought two dozen witnesses to make their case, with a full written judgment explaining the reasoning still to come.
