Why do trial hearings get postponed?

Because many of the people we work with are imprisoned for their beliefs, a lot of our work deals with trials. Sometimes there’s a simple progression from arrest to trial, verdict and sentencing – such as for Alex Aan, an atheist who was jailed in Indonesia for peacefully expressing his beliefs online. He served his two-year jail sentence (CSW staff visited him in prison), and was then released.

But it’s not always that straightforward. Trials often get delayed or postponed for months or even years. In the case of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan, her case was registered in 2009 but the verdict was delivered in 2010: her final appeal is still waiting for a judge to hear it six years later. 

The waiting can be debilitating for the accused and their family but also very frustrating for everyone involved, including people who are following the trial and praying for those concerned. 

To that end, we thought we’d look at a few of the most common reasons why a trial hearing may be postponed.

Delaying tactic
When a trial is delayed, it makes it harder to sustain international attention on an unjust or unfair situation. The news cycle is short, and, unfortunately, people lose interest. This is why it’s especially important to keep praying and campaigning for cases long-term, and show that we won’t lose interest no matter how long the trial is delayed. 

Keeps people in detention
It may seem like stating the obvious, but when a hearing is postponed, the people standing trial are kept in prison even longer. This tactic has a couple of advantages, as not only are the defendants kept out of the public eye, but it also appeases their accusers. 

Judges are intimidated
Being the judge on a controversial case can open someone up to a lot of harassment and intimidation. Giving an unpopular verdict could put a judge or their family in serious danger. By contrast, giving the verdict that the government or majority wants could set a dangerous legal precedent. If a judge refuses to attend a hearing or passes on delivering a verdict it stops them from having to make that difficult choice. 

Verdicts lead to action
Delivering a verdict could give the international community or people in the country something to campaign against. It’s easier to fight against an unjust sentence than someone being kept in prison indefinitely – it’s certainly less complicated! Delaying the trial can wrongfoot opposition by making it hard for them to organise against you, because they don’t really know what they’re up against yet.

It happens all the time
As we said in the introduction, it’s not always guaranteed that rule of law will be respected and events will proceed from arrest to trial to verdict in the way we assume. Many people are in prison all over the world still waiting for trials that get postponed indefinitely: the cases that you hear about are just the ones that CSW is currently bringing attention to.

It creates uncertainty
Unfortunately, despite our best efforts sometimes it’s hard to tell why exactly a hearing has been postponed. Whether it’s a mix of the above reasons or something unique to the particular situation, though CSW does all it can to find out the true cause and address it, occasionally we just don’t know. If you hear us reporting on a trial postponement without explaining why this has happened, there’s a good chance that this is the case.


We’ll always do our best to inform you as much as we can: but when we can’t, please do keep praying that those involved can navigate these difficult and frustrating situations.