A Pakistani high court overturned the conviction of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, accused of leaking state secrets, his lawyer and his party said on Monday (3), but for now he will remain in prison due to a sentence in another case.
Khan, 71, was sentenced to ten years in prison by a lower court on charges of making public a confidential telegram sent to Islamabad by Pakistan's ambassador in Washington in 2022. He has been in prison since August this year past.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Khan's foreign minister during his 2018-2022 term, was also acquitted of the charges, representing a major victory for the jailed leader.
“Thank God, the sentence has been overturned,” said a legal affairs spokesman for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, Naeem Panjutha, in a post on social media platform X.
Khan said the confidential cable was proof of a plot by the Pakistani and US military to overthrow his government in 2022, after he visited Moscow shortly before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The military in Washington and Pakistan deny this accusation.
The state secrets case was one of four in which Khan was convicted shortly before Pakistan's national elections in February. In two other cases, sentences were suspended while he appeals.
But despite Monday's acquittal, Khan will remain in prison serving a seven-year sentence for another case, related to his marriage to his third wife, Bushra Khan, which allegedly violated Islamic traditions.
“We will celebrate this victory,” another of his lawyers, Ali Zafar, said in a TV interview, adding that the other cases faced by Khan would also result in acquittals.
Last week, a Pakistani court postponed ruling on an appeal by Khan — a former Pakistani cricket star — and his wife against their conviction in the marriage case.
“It’s a huge political and legal victory,” journalist and political analyst Mazhar Abbas told Reuters, but cautioned that it would be premature to say Khan would be freed so soon.
Khan is also named in several other cases, including charges of inciting violence against the state.
He has remained at odds with the country's powerful military, accusing them of targeting him and his party. The military denies and argues that Khan and his supporters should be tried for attacking state facilities during violent protests against the former prime minister's initial arrest last year.
Khan and his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, were banned from contesting the February elections, but candidates backed by the jailed leader still won the most seats. They did not have the numbers to form a government, which was led by an alliance of their rivals headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Source: CNN Brasil
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