Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan was sentenced to 10 years in jail, state media and a spokesman for his party said, in a controversial case related to a leaked document.
The sentence, handed down following a trial held inside the jail where Khan has been detained for much of the time since his arrest in August, comes as the country heads to the polls on 8 February.
“Former prime minister Imran Khan and PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) vice-president (Shah Mahmood) Qureshi have been sentenced to 10 years each inside prison in the cypher case,” a spokesman for the party told AFP.
The case centres around how the pair handled a so-called “cypher” sent by Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States that alleged Washington was complicit in a plot to turf Khan from office in 2022.
Millions of people will vote in polls in less than two weeks, in a campaign marred by allegations of pre-vote rigging and Khan’s party heavily suppressed.
