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A Pakistan court handed former prime minister Imran Khan a 10-year jail term on Tuesday for leaking state secrets, the former premier’s media team said, his second conviction in recent months and just 10 days before the country’s general election.
The latest conviction in Khan case comes just days before consequential electionsThe Associated Press
· Posted: Jan 30, 2024 3:37 AM EST | Last Updated: January 30
Police officers detains a supporter of Pakistan’s Imran Khan from outside the Sindh High Court in Karachi on Tuesday. (Fareed Khan/The Associated Press)A Pakistan court on Tuesday sentenced former prime minister Imran Khan and one of his party deputies to 10 years in prison each, after finding them guilty of revealing official secrets. The verdict drew swift criticism from Khan’s followers.
It was also another blow to Khan, a former cricket star turned Islamist politician who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament in April 2022 and is currently serving a three-year prison sentence in a graft case.
According to Zulfiqar Bukhari, chief spokesman for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, the verdict was announced by a special court set up at the prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where Khan is held. Authorities said Khan and his deputy Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who also received a 10-year sentence, have the right to appeal Tuesday’s ruling in the case, popularly known as the Cipher.
Khan’s legal team was planning to appeal the conviction before the Islamabad High Court on Wednesday.
The ruling comes ahead of the Feb. 8 parliamentary elections in Pakistan — a vote Khan is barred from running in because of his previous criminal conviction.
Although he is not on the ballot, Khan remains a potent political force because of his grassroots following and anti-establishment rhetoric. He says the legal cases against him were a plot to sideline him ahead of the vote.
Pakistan has seen violent demonstrations after Khan’s May 2023 arrest and authorities have cracked down on his supporters and party since then.
Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan, pictured in 2023, was previously sentenced to three years in a corruption case. (K.M. Chaudary/The Associated Press)A roadside bomb on Tuesday targeting supporters of Khan killed four people and wounded five others in Sibi, a district in Baluchistan province, local hospital official Shahid Babar said.
The bombing happened when Khan supporters on motorcycles were passing through a bazaar to attend a campaign rally.
No one claimed responsibility and police said they are still investigating.
In recent years, Pakistani security forces have struggled to rein in surging militancy in Baluchistan, where the Pakistani Taliban and other militant groups have a presence and often attack security personnel.
Faces dozens of casesThe Cipher case is one of more than 150 cases against Khan. Other charges range from contempt of court to terrorism and inciting violence.
In the Cipher case, Khan is alleged to have waved a confidential document — a classified cable — at a rally after he was toppled. The document has not been made public by either the government or Khan’s lawyers, but was apparently diplomatic correspondence between the Pakistani ambassador to Washington and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad.
Security personnel and people gather near the site of a bomb explosion at Sibi, in Balochistan province on Tuesday. (AFP/Getty Images)During the speech, Khan claimed the document was proof he was being threatened and that his ouster was a U.S. conspiracy, allegedly executed by the military and the government in Pakistan. Washington and Pakistani officials have denied the claim.
Khan’s party said in a statement that it stands with Khan and Qureshi, “who defended Pakistan and stood for real independence.” PTI described the proceedings as a “sham trial” and said the judge did not even allow Khan and Qureshi’s lawyers to defend them.
However, the party asked his supporters to remain peaceful and not resort to violence, pending an appeal of the ruling through legal channels.
During the trial, the PTI feared Khan could be sentenced to death for treason. Khan has maintained his innocence and says he didn’t disclose the exact contents of the cable. Qureshi was accused of manipulating the contents of a diplomatic cable to gain political advantage.
‘Very light sentence’: Khan’s rivalsKhan succeeded Nawaz Sharif as prime minister in the 2018 parliamentary election.
The Pakistan Muslim League of Sharif, 74, is considered the front-runner to win the upcoming elections.
Sharif, who returned from self-exile in London late last year, was elected prime minister in 1990, 1997, and 2013. He fled after his 2017 ouster as leader and subsequent corruption convictions he blamed on the country’s influential military.
Supporters of Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s former prime minister and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) party, chant slogans at a campaign rally in Lahore on Monday, ahead of the upcoming general elections. (Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images)Shairif was acquitted in one corruption case in late 2023 and saw another conviction overturned by the Islamabad High Court, clearing his path to contest next week’s election.
The Pakistan Muslim League said the verdict was not harsh enough.
“I think, based on his carelessness and crime — pertaining to important national interests — this is a very light sentence,” Ahsan Iqbal, a senior Sharif aide, said in a TV interview.
The Feb. 8 elections come at a sensitive time in Pakistan, which is mired in an economic crisis and recently received a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
Pakistan’s human rights commission has said there is little chance of a free and fair parliamentary election since so many candidates from Khan’s party have been rejected.
Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party is also contesting the elections. He is the son of two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated at a rally in 2007.
With files from Reuters