{"id":10085,"date":"2024-06-04T08:29:36","date_gmt":"2024-06-03T20:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=10085"},"modified":"2024-06-04T08:29:36","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T20:29:36","slug":"imran-khan-acquitted-in-state-secrets-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=10085","title":{"rendered":"Imran Khan acquitted in state secrets case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan has been acquitted of leaking state secrets but will remain in jail because of a conviction in another case.<\/p>\n

In the run-up to elections in February, the 71-year-old – who was ousted as prime minister in 2022 – was hit with three prison sentences for cases he insists were politically motivated.<\/p>\n

Khan was\u00a0sentenced to 10 years in prison<\/a>\u00a0in January on charges of making public a diplomatic cable in 2022.<\/p>\n

The Islamabad High Court upheld his appeal and cleared him in that case on Monday, but he is not expected to leave prison for now.<\/p>\n

The former cricket star and his third wife Bushra are both serving prison sentences after a court ruled that their 2018 marriage\u00a0had been un-Islamic and illegal<\/a>\u00a0as it came too soon after her divorce.<\/p>\n

The couple were also found guilty of corruption over gifts received during his term as prime minister.<\/p>\n

Even behind bars, the former cricket star remains a powerful force in Pakistani politics.<\/p>\n

\"Supporters<\/p>\n

Supporters of Imran Khan hold his poster as they celebrate after he was aquitted of leaking state secrets following a court verdict in Karachi on June 3, 2024.\u00a0<\/span>Photo:\u00a0AFP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

During the February elections, his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which had been forced to run candidates as independents, emerged as the single largest bloc.<\/p>\n

However, they fell short of the majority and\u00a0their rivals united to form a new government.<\/a><\/p>\n

In the so-called “cipher case”, the prosecution argued that Khan had leaked a classified cable sent to Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington.<\/p>\n

At a rally in March 2022, the then prime minister appeared on stage waving a piece of paper that he said showed a foreign conspiracy against him.<\/p>\n

He didn’t name the country – but was subsequently highly critical of the US. Washington and Pakistani officials denied the claim.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Khan’s actions amounted to leaking a classified document and damaging diplomatic relations.<\/p>\n

Khan’s foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, was also sentenced to 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Both men were acquitted of the charges on Monday.<\/p>\n

“Thank God, the sentence is overturned,” PTI spokesman Naeem Panjutha, said in a post on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.<\/p>\n

This story was first published by the\u00a0<\/i>BBC.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan has been acquitted of leaking state secrets but will remain in jail because of a conviction in another case. In the run-up to elections in February, the 71-year-old – who was ousted as prime minister in 2022 – was hit with three prison sentences for cases he insists were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10085"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10087,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10085\/revisions\/10087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}