Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party's senior leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi have been jailed for 10 years in a case in which they were accused of leaking secrets of State.
The ruling in the so-called cipher case comes less than two weeks before the general elections. Khan, who is already serving a three-year prison sentence for a corruption case, has been banned from running in the February 8 elections.
A spokesman for Khan's PTI party said the two leaders were charged under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act in a closed-door trial, adding that the ruling would be “challenged”.
Here's what we know about the case:
What is the encrypted case?
Khan is accused of making public a classified cable – a cipher or cipher – sent to Islamabad by Pakistan's ambassador to Washington in 2022. Khan and Qureshi were indicted by a Pakistani court on October 23, 2023.
Immediately after his dismissal as prime minister in April 2022, Khan said the United States intervened in his removal. Washington and the Pakistani military have denied his allegations. Khan later toned down his rhetoric against the United States.
But a US-based media outlet, The Intercept, in August 2023 published what it claimed to be a “figure” suggesting that the US administration wanted to remove Khan from power. Khan maintains that his overthrow in April 2022 was orchestrated by the country's powerful military and his political opponents.
The Intercept published alleged details of a conversation between Pakistan's former ambassador to the United States, Asad Majeed Khan, and Donald Lu, assistant secretary of state for the US Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, on March 7, 2022. .
The conversation took place less than two weeks after Khan visited Moscow, on the day Russia invaded Ukraine. In the exchange, Lu expressed concern over Khan's visit to Russia and Pakistan's neutral stance on the Ukraine war.
“I believe that if a no-confidence vote against the prime minister is successful, all will be forgiven in Washington,” Lu reportedly told Asad Majeed Khan, who sent details of the conversation to Islamabad via a secret diplomatic cable.
Imran Khan has denied the allegation and said that the contents appeared in the media from other sources.
Does Khan have the right to appeal?
Authorities say Khan and Qureshi have the right to appeal Tuesday's ruling in the case.
The PTI said it would challenge him. “We do not accept this illegal decision,” Khan's lawyer Naeem Panjutha posted on social media platform X.
Khan's aide, Zulfikar Bukhari, told Reuters that the legal team was not given the opportunity to represent him or question witnesses, adding that the trial took place in jail.
Khan's legal team had hoped to secure his release from jail, where he has been since August last year, but the latest conviction means that is unlikely even when the charges are challenged in a higher court.
What are other charges against Khan?
The cipher case is one of more than 150 cases pending against Khan, a former cricket star. Other charges range from contempt of court to “terrorism” and inciting violence.
Khan, 71, was convicted in August 2023 by a lower court for failing to declare assets he obtained from the sale of gifts he received from foreign governments and leaders during his tenure as prime minister from 2018 to 2022. This is called the Toshakhana case.
The sentence was later suspended, but Khan remains behind bars in connection with other cases. He has said he purchased the items legally. Government officials have alleged that Khan's aides sold the gifts in Dubai.
Khan was previously arrested for four days in May 2023 on charges that he and his wife received land as bribes through the Al-Qadir Trust, a charitable trust created by Khan's third wife, Bushra Bibi, and himself in 2018. when he was still in office. .
Pakistani authorities have accused Khan and his wife of receiving the land, valued at up to 7 billion rupees ($25 million), from a property developer.
Khan's aides have previously said the land was donated to the trust for charitable purposes. The property developer has also denied any wrongdoing.
Will Khan be on the ballot for the February election?
The Toshakhana case led to a decision by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) that disqualified Khan from holding public office for five years.
Furthermore, the ECP also banned its party, the PTI, from using its electoral symbol on the ballot.
Although Khan will not be on the February ballot, he remains a potent political force due to his grassroots supporters and anti-establishment rhetoric. He says the legal cases against him were a plot to sideline him before the vote.
