Islamabad: A Pakistani court has sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan to 10 years in prison for leaking classified information, according to Khan's media team. This marks Khan's second conviction in recent months and comes just 10 days before the country's general election.
The case revolves around accusations that Khan disclosed the contents of a confidential cable sent by the Pakistani ambassador in Washington to the government in Islamabad.
Khan's party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), stated that both Khan and former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi received identical 10-year sentences from a special court. The party plans to challenge the decision, dismissing it as a "sham case."
"We do not accept this illegal verdict," posted Khan's lawyer Naeem Panjutha on the social media platform X, previously known as Twitter.
This is the second legal blow for the beleaguered former cricket star in recent times. He was previously convicted to three years in jail in a corruption case. Although his prison sentence was suspended as he appealed the corruption conviction, it had already barred him from participating in the upcoming general elections.
Despite efforts by Khan's legal team to secure his release from jail, where he has been held since August last year, away from the public eye, the latest conviction makes it unlikely, pending an appeal in a higher court.
Since his ousting from power in a parliamentary vote of no confidence in 2022, Khan has been embroiled in numerous legal battles.
Khan contends that the leaked cable provides evidence of a conspiracy between the Pakistani military and the US government to overthrow his administration in 2022, following his visit to Moscow shortly before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Both Washington and the Pakistani military have denied these allegations.
The former prime minister has previously claimed that the information from the cable surfaced in the media through other channels.
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