A Karachi district court dismissed the bail application by journalist Farhan Malick on Friday in a case related to the execution of supposedly “antistatal” content on the YouTube channel of his departure.
Malick, the founder of the Media Agency Raftar and a former news director in TV SamaaIt was arrested on March 20 in Karachi and reserved under the Law on Electronic Crimes (PECA), as well as the Pakistan Criminal Code. The next day, he was delivered to the custody of the Federal Research Agency (FIA) for four days.
During the previous process, Judicial Magistrate Yusra Ashfaq reserved his order in the request for bail after the journalist’s arrest. He also summoned an additional director of the FIA for not complying with the court order with respect to the custody of the Malick prison.
The hearing today was held within the 14th court of the District of the Court of the City of the East. The journalist’s lawyers expected their bail application to be accepted. However, after a wait for more than three hours, Judge Yusra dismissed the plea. Tomorrow a detailed order (Saturday) will be issued.
Subsequently, in a talk in the media, Malick’s lawyer, Abdul Moiz Jaferii, said they had the hope that today’s result would have been in favor of the journalist since his motives and arguments presented during Thursday’s audience were strong.
“Let’s see what is the [written] The order says and what are the reasons, “said the lawyer.” We will look at the order and then go to appeal. “
During the process, the director of the FIA appeared in the Court through the rear entrance. The court ordered him to prepare an internal consultation report on the breach of judicial orders and submit it within 15 days.
It should be noted that the Court had previously rejected the FIA’s request to extend Malick’s custody in the case and sent it to prison in judicial prison. However, defense lawyer Jaferii filed a request against the FIA before the Court, stating that instead of giving the journalist to the prison in question, the agency kept him illegally in custody.
Before the hearing, several journalists appeared in the court of the city in solidarity with Malick. His wife, Tazeen, was also there, along with some members of the media agency. RaftarProperty of the jailed journalist.
‘Clear Awareness’
Talking with Dawn.com Before the process, Tazeen shared that her husband received a FIA notice in November last year. “But they didn’t provide us with any reason or reason,” he recalled.
“But then, on March 19, FIA officials broke into the Malick’s office and harassed their tea boy,” he said, added that they then broke into her husband’s office and pressed him to meet the director of the FIA. “When he went to his office the next day, they arrested him after a one -hour wait,” Tazeen added.
Currently, Malick has been imprisoned in the FIA cyber crimes office in Gulistan-I-Jauhar. “We are allowed to know him … every day I take sehar and Ifar for him,” he said.
“He is in a good mood because he knows he has not done anything wrong,” said Tazeen. “Our conscience is clear.”
Regarding judicial procedures, Malick’s wife said he had no great hope, regretting that each audience began after a delay of four to five hours. “Every time we come to court, we expect the worst.”
The case
According to a first information report (FIR) dated March 20, the FIA had received a report on the YouTube channel of Raftar TV, which was “involved in the execution of a campaign for the publication of antistatal videos aimed at the dignitaries mentioned in violation.”
Malick had been reserved under sections 16 (unauthorized use of identity information), 20 (crimes against the dignity of a natural person) and 26-A of the Law of Electronic Crime Prevention (PCA) 2016, as well as sections 500 (defamation punishment) and 109 (SUM) of the Pakistan Criminal Code (PPC).
In particular, section 26a is among the recently added provisions to PECA laws, in which false news is defined as any information on which a person “knows or has reasons to believe that they are false or false and probably cause or create a feeling of fear, panic or disorder or concern.”
Any person convicted of disseminating such information could be sentenced to up to three years in prison or fined to RS2 million, or both.
The criminalization of online disinformation has spread fear in Pakistan, with journalists among those concerned with the potential scope of the law.
