Geneva, July 8 -- United Nations human rights experts have strongly criticised Pakistan over the sentencing of prominent Baloch human rights defender Mahrang Baloch, describing the verdict as a "travesty of justice" and expressing serious concern over what they called the misuse of counter-terrorism laws to silence peaceful dissent.

In a press release, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the experts said Mahrang Baloch was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment by an Anti-Terrorism Court in Quetta following what they described as an unfair trial. They argued that terrorism and murder charges had been used to suppress the rights to peaceful protest, freedom of expression and association.

Mahrang Baloch, ...