UK-based human rights body expresses solidarity with Jang/Geo Editor-in-Chief

LONDON: The Pakistan Human Rights Forum (UK) has expressed solidarity with Jang/Geo Editor-in-Chief, Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman over freedom of expression and a right to a fair trial as well as with the media group.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the forum’s President Shahid Dastgir Khan said: “Mir Shakil-ur-Rahman seems to be at least a victim of a misconceived perception by NAB (National Accountability Bureau) of legal benchmarks for freedom and right to a fair trial, in the alternative and on the face of it, he is a victim of targeted, unlawful and unacceptable arbitrary action of detention and harassment without proper government departments. The director general of MI5, Sir Andrew Parker, has ultimate responsibility for the organisation. In a statement, Ms Patel said: “The risks posed to the UK and its allies from state-based threats have both grown and diversified in recent years, ranging from espionage and subversion to coercion and assassination.

“The use of the internet as a way for states to expand their influence poses new issues and has made it easier for attacks to be carried out, whilst making it harder to identify those responsible. We face sustained and hostile activity which is deliberate and targeted and intended to threaten our national security.”

The move comes after the government announced a review of the Official Secrets Act to assess whether it needs further powers.

The threat was underlined by the attempted murder in Salisbury in 2018 of the former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, by Russian agents using the Novichok nerve agent.