A District and Sessions Court in Islamabad on Friday granted a post-arrest bail to Senator Azam Swati in a case related to a controversial tweet, Aaj News reported.
Special Judge Central Raja Asif Mehmood heard his petition and approved his surety bonds worth Rs10,000. The verdict on his petition was reserved on Thursday.
The Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) Cyber Crime Wing arrested Swati from his residence in the federal capital last week after registering a case against him over some tweets.
Condemning his arrest on "mere tweets" and custodial torture, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan had said he would take up the matter at international forums.
Later, former human rights minister and senior PTI leader Shireen Mazari wrote open letters to world human rights bodies, demanding his early release.
In an open letter addressed to the Human Rights Committee, Geneva and the Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 34/19), the PTI leader highlighted the arrest and "subsequent torture" on Swati.
“Pakistan has been engulfed in a political crisis in the aftermath of a ‘regime change scheme’ to remove the government of PM Khan and replace it with a combined opposition government with a bloated cabinet comprising primarily of members out on bail,” she wrote.
She further wrote that the government, ‘backed by the Establishment’, has responded with repressive measures, especially in the wake of the PTI sweep of a series of by-elections held on 17 July in the province of Punjab “despite a concerted effort of rigging by the government, the Election Commission of Pakistan and the State.”
“I had written to you in August 2022 drawing your attention to the abduction, subsequent arrest and custodial torture on Dr Shahbaz Gill, but unfortunately there seemed to have been little response, which has erroneously signalled to the government it can continue with impunity the use of custodial torture including against the leadership of the PTI,” Mazari wrote.
She wrote that according to his own statement, given before the media while being presented to the magistrate court, Swati was stripped and tortured for his crime of posting one tweet in which he apparently criticised the army chief.
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