FORMER Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to ten years in prison for revealing state secrets.
The former playboy ex-cricket star, 71, was ousted through a no-confidence vote in April 2022.
APImran Khan has been sentenced to ten years in prison for leaking state secrets[/caption]
Twitter/nadeemmalikFootage showed a huge number of riot cops surrounding the former Pakistan PM as he was arrested last May[/caption]
Khan is currently serving a three-year prison sentence over corruption allegations.
An Islamabad court found him guilty of illegally selling state gifts last August – a charge the politician denied.
But he has now been sentenced to a decade behind bars for leaking official secrets.
One of his party deputies has also been handed a ten-year sentence,
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.
The latest development comes ahead of the February 8 parliamentary elections in Pakistan.
Khan’s party said it would challenge the decision and called it a “sham case”.
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 arrest in Mat 2023.
Authorities have cracked down on his supporters and party since then.
In May last year, footage showed Khan being arrested and bundled into a truck by riot cops.
He was detained by agents from Pakistan‘s anti-corruption body, and dragged out of his wheelchair by a huge crowd of cops in riot gear.
After the politician was whisked away, a scuffle broke out between the former premier’s supporters and police.
His lawyer was left injured, as were several cops and members of the public.
Khan’s furious followers then attacked government and military property across the country.
Khan – who captained the Pakistan national cricket team through the 1980s and early 1990s – again denied wrongdoing and was released on bail within days.
The embattled former PM previously accused Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif of orchestrating a plot to assassinate him after he was shot at a rally.
Khan was delivering a speech from his campaign truck in Wazirabad, in the east of the country, when a gunman opened fire.
Shocking footage shows the moment a hail of gunfire ripped through the former premier‘s convoy – hitting him in the shin.
GettyKhan captained the Pakistan national cricket team through the 1980s and early 90s[/caption]
APSmoke billowed into the air after protesters set a fire in Pweshawar following his arrest[/caption]