On Tuesday, a Pakistani court sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan to 10 years in prison for disclosing state secrets on the eve of elections, Reuters reports, citing Khan's party, UNN informs.
Details
A special court has found Khan guilty of disclosing the contents of a secret cable sent by Pakistan's ambassador to Washington to the government in Islamabad, his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said.
Former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was also sentenced to 10 years in prison in the same case.
The verdict came a few days before the parliamentary elections and the election of a new prime minister. Khan's party said it would appeal the decision.
"We do not accept this illegal decision," Khan's lawyer Naeem Panjuta wrote on the social media platform X.
Khan's lawyer, Ali Zafar, told ARY TV that, given the circumstances of the trial and the verdict, there is a "100%" chance that the case will be overturned on appeal.
Addendum
The prison term is the second sentence for Khan in recent months. Earlier, Khan was sentenced to three years in prison in a corruption case, which has already ruled him out of next week's elections. However, his team had hoped to secure his release from prison, where he has been held since August last year.
Add
Khan claims that the telegram related to the case is proof of a conspiracy between the Pakistani military and the US government to overthrow his government in 2022, after he visited Moscow shortly before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Washington and the Pakistani military deny the allegations. The former prime minister also previously stated that the contents of the telegram were leaked to the media from other sources.