What is the cypher case that led to jail term for Pakistan’s Imran Khan?
Al Jazeera
Pakistan’s former prime minister is jailed for 10 years in cypher case less than two weeks ahead of general elections.
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and senior leader of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party Shah Mahmood Qureshi have been jailed for 10 years in a case where they were charged with leaking state secrets.
The sentencing in what is called as the cypher case comes less than two weeks before the general elections. Khan, who is already serving a three-year jail term in a corruption case, has been barred from standing in the elections on February 8.
A spokesperson for Khan’s PTI party said the two leaders were charged under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act in a closed-door trial, adding the ruling would be “challenged”.
Here is what we know about the case:
Khan is charged with making public a classified cable – a cypher or cipher – sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington in 2022. Khan and Qureshi were indicted by a Pakistani court on October 23, 2023.
