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An Islamabad court dismissed on Wednesday the bail plea of PTI Senator Azam Swati, who has been in detention since late November over his controversial tweets about senior military officers.
Swati was arrested on November 27 after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) booked him in Islamabad over a “highly obnoxious campaign of intimidating tweets […] against state institutions”. It was the second time that Swati was booked and arrested by the FIA over his tweets about army officials in less than two months.
His bail plea was taken up by Special Judge Central Azam Khan, who observed while dismissing the senator’s bail plea that he had “committed the same offence twice”.
The judge announced the verdict after hearing arguments from Special Prosecutor Raja Rizwan Abbasi, the government’s lawyer and Swati’s counsel, Sohail Khan Swati.
Prosecutor Abbasi elaborated before the court on how a Twitter account was verified, adding that Senator Swati’s account had a blue tick and it was followed by renowned personalities, including politicians and journalists.
He further said neither Swati nor his lawyer had ever denied that the account in question was the senator’s.
“There are no two ways about it. The account is Swati’s,” he contended.
The government’s lawyer said during his arguments that Swati had tried to build a narrative against the armed forces.
On these grounds, both the prosecutor and the government lawyer opposed the request for Swati’s bail.
Countering their arguments, Swati’s lawyer argued that a case of cybercrime could not be registered on the basis of screenshots of tweets.
The judge then reserved his judgement on Swati’s bail plea and later dismissed it.
Arrests over tweets
Swati was first arrested by the FIA on charges of posting controversial tweets about the armed forces in October and was later released on bail.
The senator has alleged since that he was tortured in custody and demanded the removal of two military officials, one of whom he used foul language against in his tweet on November 26.
On November 27, the FIA arrested Swati for the second time over a “highly obnoxious campaign of intimidating tweets […] against state institutions”.
The arrest came after an FIR was registered by the FIA on the complaint of the state through Islamabad Cyber Crime Reporting Centre Technical Assistant Aneesur Rehman.
The complaint was registered under Section 20 of Peca 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 PPC.
Following his arrest in November, the Pakistan Electronic Media and Regulatory Authority prohibited Azam’s media coverage on all satellite TV channels.
Separate FIRs were also registered against the PTI leader in Balochistan and Sindh as well.
On December 2, Swati was brought to Quetta from Islamabad in one such case, registered at the Kuchlak police station, a day after a court in the capital approved his 14-day judicial remand.
But on December 9, the Balochistan High Court ordered the quashing of all five cases initially registered against him in the province.
Hours after the order was issued, the PTI senator was handed over to Sindh police while his lawyer said two new cases were registered against Swati in Balochistan. Later, another case was registered against Swati in Balochistan.
The cases were registered under Sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups, etc), 124A (sedition), and 123A (condemnation of the creation of the State, and advocacy of abolition of its sovereignty) of the PPC.
On December 13, the SHC restrained police from arresting Swati in cases registered against him within the limits of SHC’s Hyderabad registry and Karachi and on December 15, the SHC directed provincial authorities to disposed of all cases against Swati as C-Class.
At the same hearing, the Sindh prosecutor general had informed the court that Swati had been shifted back to Islamabad, where his judicial remand was extended for another 15 days in the FIA case.
Earlier this week, the BHC ordered the quashing of three remaining FIRs registered against the senator in the province.