Pakistani court sentences former Prime Minister Imran Khan to 10 years for revealing state secrets

A Pakistani court 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

A Pakistani court on January 30 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 was another blow to Khan, a former cricket star turned Islamist politician, who was ousted through a no-confidence vote in Parliament in April 2022 and is currently serving a three-year prison sentence in a graft case.

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According to Zulfiqar Bukhari, spokesman for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, the court announced the verdict at a prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Authorities said Khan and his deputy who also received a 10-year sentence, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, have the right to appeal Tuesday’s ruling in the case, popularly known as the Cipher case.

The ruling comes ahead of the February 8 parliamentary elections in Pakistan — a vote that Khan is barred from running in because of his previous criminal conviction.

Although Khan will not be on the ballot for the February election, he remains a potent political force because of his grassroots following and anti-establishment rhetoric. He says the legal cases against him were a plot to sideline him ahead of the vote.

Pakistan has seen violent demonstrations since after Khan’s May 2023 arrest. Authorities have cracked down on his supporters and party since then.