ISLAMABAD: A local court in the federal capital remanded PTI Senator Azam Swati in the custody of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for four more days. Swati was arrested on Sunday for the second time after a raid at his farmhouse in Chak Shahzad by the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Cyber Crime Wing Islamabad for allegedly tweeting against senior military officials.
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An FIR against Swati was registered by the FIA Cyber Crime Wing on November 26, under Section 20 of the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act (Peca) 2016 which deals with offences against dignity of a person 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 Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
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On November 27, Azam Swati was produced before a judicial magistrate who remanded him in FIA’s custody for 2 days.
After the end of two days of physical remand, Senior Civil Judge Mohammad Bashir heard the case of controversial tweet here on Tuesday during which FIA demanded his physical remand of 6 more days.
Lawyer Babar Awan requested that his client Swati may not be presented in the court due to security concerns.
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The court granted exemption to Azam Swati from appearing in person and granted physical remand to FIA for four more days. Judge Mohammad Bashir ordered that Azam Swati’s appearence in court be made via video link.
