Former Pakistani captain Imran Khan was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Former captain of Pakistan cricket team Imran Khan was sentenced to 10 years in prison for leaking state secrets. On Tuesday, a Pakistani court in Rawalpindi sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan and former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to 10 years in prison in a cypher case.
The prison sentencing comes a week before the general elections on February 8, in which Imran Khan has been banned from contesting.
Khan has repeatedly denied the charge, saying the evidence and his sacking as prime minister were a vicious plan made by his political opponents and military
After the hearing, Khan reportedly said to his lawyers, “I have never played or watched a fixed match in my life, and I don’t want to sit here and be part of this fixed match. I am in pain; can I go?”
Imran Khan was arrested for allegedly breaching the Official Secrets Act by divulging a confidential diplomatic cable known as the cipher from Pakistan’s embassy in Washington, with its contents becoming public in March 2022.