A Pakistani court sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan to 10 years in prison on Tuesday for leaking state secrets, the former prime minister’s media team said, his second conviction in recent months and just 10 days before the country’s general election.
The case related to allegations that Khan had made public content of a secret cable sent by the country’s ambassador in Washington to the government in Islamabad.
Khan’s side, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said both Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had each been sentenced to 10 years by a special court.
It said the party would challenge the decision and called it a “false case”.
“We do not accept this illegal decision,” Khan’s lawyer Naeem Panjutha posted on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
It is the second conviction for the embattled former cricket star in recent months.
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party said he had been sentenced to 10 years by a special court. Reuters
He was previously sentenced to three years in a corruption case.
Although his prison sentence was suspended as he challenged the corruption conviction, it has already ruled him out of next week’s national general election.
Despite being ruled out of the election, Khan’s legal team hopes he will be released from prison, where he has been since August last year away from the public eye.
Policemen signal next to a fallen motorcycle of supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, during clashes at a rally ahead of general elections, in Karachi, Pakistan, January 28, 2024. REUTERS
The latest conviction means that is unlikely to happen even if the charges are contested in a higher court.
Khan has fought dozens of cases since he was ousted from power in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in 2022.
Khan said the cables were evidence of a conspiracy by the Pakistani military and the US government to overthrow his government in 2022 after he visited Moscow shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A policeman fires in the air to disperse Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party protesters demanding the release of jailed former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan, in Karachi on January 28, 2024. AFP via Getty Images
Washington and the Pakistani military deny the allegations.
The former prime minister had previously said the content of the cable appeared in the media from other sources.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
