ISLAMABAD: Pakistani human rights lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her husband Hadi Ali Chattha were sent back to jail on judicial remand late on Thursday, hours after the Supreme Court suspended their 17-year prison sentences over social media posts and ordered their release on bail.

Islamabad police took the couple into custody in connection with a separate case registered at the capital’s Kohsar police station in March 2025 and produced them before an anti-terrorism court (ATC), according to police sources cited by local media. The court sent them back to jail on judicial remand.

Mazari-Hazir’s mother, former human rights minister Shireen Mazari, disputed reports that the couple had been released before being taken into custody, telling Arab News they had never left Adiala jail.

“The police illegally took them from inside Adiala Jail, which they cannot do without a judicial order, and there was no judicial order,” she said.

“Then they brought them in the night. They opened the ATC court in the night, and the judge gave them judicial remand, and then they were taken back to Adiala.”

Mazari accused the government of acting in bad faith. Arab News could not independently verify her account of how the couple were taken into custody in the second case.

The case at Kohsar police station was registered on March 22, 2025, on the complaint of a city magistrate. The couple are accused of chanting anti-government slogans and blocking roads, among other allegations.

The late-night development came hours after a two-member Supreme Court bench suspended an earlier verdict that sentenced Mazari-Hazir and Chattha to 17 years in prison under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) over social media posts.

“Today they have suspended the judgment of the trial court,” the couple’s lawyer Faisal Siddiqi told reporters outside the top court earlier on Thursday.

“And they have ordered both Imaan and Hadi to be released on personal bond.”

The Supreme Court granted the couple bail against personal surety bonds of Rs200,000 each pending a final decision by the Islamabad High Court on their appeals.

Mazari-Hazir and Chattha were sentenced in January by a district and sessions court over posts on X that prosecutors said incited ethnic divisions and portrayed the military as being involved in “terrorism.” Both deny the allegations.

In its verdict, Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Afzal Majoka said the prosecution had proved its case against the couple under Sections 9, 10 and 26-A of PECA, relating to glorification of an offense, cyberterrorism and dissemination of false and fake information.

The court sentenced each to 10 years’ imprisonment under Section 10, five years under Section 9 and two years under Section 26-A.

The couple subsequently challenged their convictions before the Islamabad High Court and sought suspension of their sentences.

On May 12, the Supreme Court ordered the IHC to decide their sentence suspension pleas within two weeks. After the high court did not decide the applications within that period, the couple pursued the matter before the Supreme Court, which on Thursday suspended the trial court’s judgment and ordered their release on bail pending the IHC’s final decision.

The January convictions triggered criticism from lawyers and rights groups, who have accused authorities of targeting Mazari-Hazir over her criticism of Pakistan’s powerful military. The government has denied suppressing dissent.