SHC acquits journalist Nasrullah Chaudhry

Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday acquitted journalist Nasrullah Chaudhry in a case of possessing banned literature and overturned his sentence by ordering his release from jail.

His lawyer Muhammad Farooq appeared in the court on Wednesday to argue in the appeal against his five-year sentence when a division bench of the SHC took up the appeal for hearing.

An anti-terrorism court had sentenced Chaudhry to five years in jail on December 26, 2019 for printing, publishing or disseminating any material to incite hatred or giving projection to any person convicted for a terrorist act or any proscribed organisation or an organisation placed under observation or anyone concerned in terrorism of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The lawyer argued that the journalist was taken into custody three days before his arrest was actually declared. He also said the FIR was illegal.

The lawyer contended that law enforcing agencies kept him in illegal custody and then registered a false case against him to threaten journalists.

Chaudhry's lawyer also argued that the prosecution was unable to prove its case and never presented any evidence of his possessing banned literature during the hearing.