{"id":11031,"date":"2024-01-30T10:24:59","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T10:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/londonpost.news\/?p=11031"},"modified":"2024-01-30T10:24:59","modified_gmt":"2024-01-30T10:24:59","slug":"cipher-casepakistani-court-sentences-ex-pm-imran-khan-to-10-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/asia\/south-asia\/pakistan\/cipher-casepakistani-court-sentences-ex-pm-imran-khan-to-10-years\/2024\/01\/30\/admin1\/","title":{"rendered":"Cipher case:Pakistani court sentences Ex-PM Imran Khan to 10 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

I<\/span>SLAMABAD (AP) \u2014 A Pakistani 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

According to Zulfiqar Bukhari, chief spokesman for Khan\u2019s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, or PTI, 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\u2019s ruling in the case, popularly known as the Cipher.<\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/p>\n

Khan’s legal team was planning to appeal the conviction before the Islamabad High Court on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The ruling comes ahead of the Feb. 8 parliamentary elections in Pakistan \u2014 a vote Khan is barred\u00a0from running in\u00a0because of\u00a0his previous criminal conviction.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0legal cases against him\u00a0were a plot to sideline him ahead of the vote.<\/p>\n

Pakistan has seen\u00a0violent demonstrations\u00a0after Khan\u2019s May 2023 arrest and authorities have cracked down on his supporters and party since then.<\/p>\n

Pakistan\u2019s human rights commission has said there is\u00a0little chance of a free and fair parliamentary election\u00a0next month because of \u201cpre-poll rigging.\u201d It also expressed concern about authorities rejecting the candidacies of Khan and senior figures from his party.<\/p>\n

The Cipher case\u00a0is one of more than 150 cases against Khan. Other charges range from contempt of court to terrorism and inciting violence.<\/p>\n

In the Cipher case, Khan is alleged to have waved a confidential document \u2014 a classified cable \u2014 at a rally after he was toppled.\u00a0The document has not been made public\u00a0by either the government or Khan\u2019s lawyers, but was apparently diplomatic correspondence between the Pakistani ambassador to Washington and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Khan\u2019s party said in a statement that it stands with Khan and Qureshi, \u201cwho defended Pakistan and stood for real independence.\u201d PTI described the proceedings as a \u201csham trial\u201d and said the judge did not even allow Khan and Qureshi’s lawyers to defend them.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ISLAMABAD (AP) \u2014 A Pakistani 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 […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":""},"categories":[2406],"tags":[5924,8142,8143,8144,8145,56,2169,4813],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Imran-khan.jpg","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11031"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11033,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11031\/revisions\/11033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brusselsindependent.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}