Pakistani Reporter Nasrullah Chaudhry Sentenced to Five Years in Prison by Anti-Terrorism Court

The journalist received the sentence on the pretext that he was linked to the Al-Qaeda terrorist group, which he has always denied. Faced with the emptiness of the accusation file, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) asks the Pakistani justice to reverse this unfair judgment at second instance.

The anti-terrorist court in Karachi (southern Pakistan), sentenced journalist Nasrullah Chaudhry to December 5, 2019 to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 rupees (125 euros). Editor of the daily newspaper in Urdu language Nai Baat , he was arrested on November 11, 2018 for “possession of documents inciting religious hatred and jihad”.

This qualification allowed the prosecution to accuse him of working in liaison with an Al-Qaeda terrorist, then of bringing him before an anti-terrorist court. For his part, the journalist denies any proximity to any terrorist activist, and claims to have never possessed documents inciting hate crimes.

After more than a year of investigation, the investigators were unable to provide any evidence or evidence of Nasrullah Chaudhry’s guilt,” said Daniel Bastard, manager of RSF’s Asia-Pacific office. We call on the Karachi Counter-Terrorism Court to reconsider this unfair judgment and, in the absence of additional evidence to support the accusation, to drop the charges against him. The best way to prevent possible attacks is to let journalists investigate terrorism ”.

Since the start of the case, Nasrullah Chaudhry, who has practiced for twenty years and has received unanimous support from his peers at the Karachi Press Club and the Federal Union of Journalists, has repeatedly denounced a conspiracy by the authorities.

Pakistan is 142nd out of 180 countries in the 2019 edition of the World Press Freedom Index published by RSF.