The Canadian student who was arrested in Pakistan while conducting research for his dissertation has not been granted bail. Hamza Ahmed Khan’s brother, Awes Ahmed Khan, said that there was no reason to keep his brother in prison, local media reported.
“There is no reason to keep him behind bars. It feels like the system wants to punish him before a trial. We’ve not slept properly in a week,” Canada’s leading media outlet CBC News quoted Awes as saying.
Hamza Ahmed Khan, a dual Canadian-Pakistani national, pursuing PhD in University of Toronto, visited Pakistan in December to interview experts about the politics of democracy promotion in Muslim-majority societies. Khan’s family said he went missing on February 19 and has been kept in Lahore district jail since February 21.
The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) arrested Ahmed Khan for alleged infractions of Pakistan’s 2016 Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act. In its official report, the NCCIA said it found, during one of its regular patrols, that Ahmed Khan was “disseminating misinformation and disinformation targetting state institutions” on his X and Instagram accounts.
The family’s lawyer, Asad Jamal, said the decision to not grant bail to Ahmed Khan was taken on the basis of precedential cases that don’t match this specific one.
In the court’s order, judicial magistrate Muhammad Naeem Wattoo said allegations of such “derogatory and malicious campaigns” against the state “cannot be treated as trivial or casual matters.”
“In the digital era, dissemination of inflammatory content through social media platforms produces instantaneous and far-reaching consequences.” He stressed such allegations require serious judicial consideration and cannot be brushed aside lightly, CBC News reported.
Awes Ahmed Khan said his brother was sharing ideas with a few dozen followers on social media platforms created for free speech and discussion. “The system should not punish speech and ideas. If critical posts about human rights [or] government policies will lead to people being given jail time without due fair process, then it affects everybody’s ability to speak freely, not just Hamza’s.”
Hamza Ahmed Khan has approximately 15,700 followers on X. Awes Ahmed Khan said that he does not understand the fear of tampering with proof. Speaking to CBC Toronto, he said, “If you say something, share something, you cannot just change it out there,” adding that, “This is completely unjust.”
Asad Jamal said Hamza Ahmed Khan’s family has filed a bail plea in the district court and if they are unsuccessful there, they will approach the High Court. However, Jamal is not hopeful about district court. He said, “There is a fair chance that the bail petition may be dismissed.”
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