Azam Swati can face life imprisonment in controversial tweets’ case: Court
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf PTI) Senator Azam Swati could face a minimum seven-year jail term or a maximum life imprisonment, Islamabad’s special court said in a detailed verdict in the case of a controversial tweets.
The 6-page written judgment released by the Special Central Court noted that Azam Swati incited people against the state institutions.
The judgment further stated that PTI leader tweeted against a senior officer of the Pakistan Army which was re-tweeted by various Twitter accounts and Swati thanked them.
It added that Mr. Swati repeated the offence more than once and could face a minimum seven-year jail term or a maximum of life imprisonment.
Earlier a day, the Islamabad court rejected the bail plea of Senator Azam Swati’s in the controversial tweets case against him, saying the “same offence” has been committed twice.
Background:
On November 27, PTI Senator Azam Khan Swati was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for his controversial tweets against senior military officials.
A First Information Report (FIR) was registered by the FIA on the complaint of the state through Islamabad Cyber Crime Reporting Centre (CCRC) Technical Assistant Aneesur Rehman.
The complaint was registered under Section 20 of the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act 2016 (Peca) which deals with offences against dignity of a person as well as Sections 131 (abetting mutiny or attempting to seduce a soldier from his duty),500 (punishment for defamation), 501 (defamation and printing of content deemed defamatory), Section 505 (statement conducing to public mischief) and 109 (abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
The FIR reads: “Swati and three other Twitter accounts with malafide intentions and ulterior motives, started a highly obnoxious campaign of intimidating tweets […] against state institutions and senior government functionaries, including outgoing army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa”
The FIR added that such “intimidating tweets of blaming and naming” were a “mischievous act of subversion to create a rift between personnel of armed forces to harm the state of Pakistan”.
