Pakistan court has sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his close aide, former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, to 10 years in jail in a case related to the leaking of state secrets. The special court set up in a prison in Rawalpindi on January 30 announced the sentence in the so-called cypher case, which pertains to a diplomatic cable that Khan claims proves his allegation that his removal from power in 2022 was a conspiracy.
The sentencing against the country’s main opposition leader comes about a week before the general elections, scheduled on February 8. The vote follows a massive crackdown against Kahn’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party, which saw dozens of its leaders quitting the party and thousands of its members and supporters jailed.
It is Khan’s second conviction in less than a year. In August, he was sentenced to three years in a corruption case, which barred him from contesting the national elections.
Khan was Pakistan’s premier from August 2018 to April 2022 when he lost a vote of confidence in the parliament. He has been in jail since August last year, facing trial in multiple cases.
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