Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for leaking state secrets.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi were handed a 10-year prison sentence in the cipher case by a special court in Pakistan on Tuesday.
The cipher case concerns a diplomatic cable, which reportedly went missing from Khan’s possession. Khan had repeatedly said before and after the no-confidence motion against him last year that the cipher pointed to a conspiracy to remove him from the prime minister’s office.
Ten witnesses had come to record statements against Khan and Qureshi in the case. They were brought by the Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) which had registered the case against Khan and Qureshi in August for violating the secret laws of the country by allegedly revealing details of the official diplomatic communication, reported PTI.
In December, Pakistan’s Supreme Court had granted post-arrest bails to Khan and Qureshi. Although Imran remained detained in other cases, Qureshi’s anticipated release was delayed as he was reportedly manhandled and re-arrested in a new case on May 9, as reported by the Dawn.
Khan was ousted as the Prime Minister of Pakistan through a vote of no-confidence in April 2022. He was jailed on August 5 2023, after an Islamabad court sentenced him to three years in prison in the Toshakhana case. He was lodged in the Attock District Jail to serve his prison term.
Later, his sentence was suspended by the Islamabad High Court, but then he was arrested in the cipher case and remained in the Attock jail on judicial remand.
