The Clooney Foundation for Justice announced today that it will monitor the proceedings against investigative journalist Ahmad Noorani under Pakistan’s flawed Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA).
Noorani has long been targeted for his reporting on corruption and his criticism of the government and the military in Pakistan. In 2017, he survived a near fatal attack, reportedly in reprisal for his work. He is currently in the United States, where he has continued to face death threats and criminal cases from his home country.
On March 17, Noorani published an investigation on his online news portal that levelled substantial allegations against the Pakistani military, accusing the army chief of nepotism and highlighting “the military’s unchecked hegemony and misgovernance in Pakistan.” Hours later, two dozen armed men claiming to be the police raided Noorani’s family home in Islamabad and abducted his two brothers. Their whereabouts remain unknown.
Before Noorani published the piece, Pakistani officials filed paperwork to clear the way for two investigations into Noorani under PECA — a law TrialWatch has found is routinely misused to target journalists and suppress online speech. Authorities are prosecuting him for a post on X while separately accusing him of sharing “objectionable posts against national institutions and personalities.”
Noorani has claimed that the charges — filed after he had reached out to individuals for comment on his latest reporting — were an attempt to deter him from publishing his investigation.
TrialWatch will closely monitor proceedings in Islamabad and Lahore, where the cases were registered.
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The Clooney Foundation for Justice wages justice by providing free legal aid in defense of free speech and women’s rights in over 40 countries. Its work has led to dozens of journalists being set free and thousands of women receiving free legal support to defend their rights.