© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan pauses as he speaks with Reuters throughout an interview, in Lahore, Pakistan March 17, 2023. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro/File photograph
By Asif Shahzad
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Jailed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was denied an open court docket trial on Monday as ordered by a excessive court docket after the federal government submitted stories citing threats to his life, his lawyer stated.
The particular court docket listening to the case later stated Khan’s trial on the cost of leaking state secrets and techniques shall be held in jail premises however shall be open to media and the general public, the lawyer stated.
The trial in jail will start afresh on Friday, the court docket stated. It has been conducting the trial in jail since Khan was indicted on the fees final month.
The Islamabad Excessive Court docket had dominated final week that holding Khan’s trial inside jail premises on safety considerations was unlawful, and ordered it restarted in an open court docket.
Khan has denied the fees in opposition to him.
The 71-year-old former cricket star has been embroiled in a tangle of political and authorized battles since he was ousted as prime minister. He has not been seen in public since he was jailed for 3 years in August for unlawfully promoting state items whereas in workplace from 2018 to 2022.
Khan had been showing in courts previous to his August arrest protected by his private safety guards. However he has additionally sought exemptions from private appearances, usually citing threats to his security, particularly after he survived an assassination try late final 12 months.
“Jail reports have been submitted citing that Imran Khan has life threats according to various intelligence and police reports,” stated the lawyer, Naeem Panjutha, in a put up on social media platform X, previously often called Twitter.
The newest expenses in opposition to Khan relate to a categorised cable despatched to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in the US final 12 months, which Khan is accused of constructing public.
The graft conviction has put a five-year bar on Khan contesting elections. He denies any wrongdoing and has stated all the fees in opposition to him, together with the graft case and the leak of the cable, had been cooked up on the behest of the navy to dam him from the Feb. 8 normal election.
The navy has dismissed Khan’s allegations.
The election is shaping as a combat between Khan’s occasion and that of one other ousted former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.
Each leaders had fallen out with the navy, which has dominated immediately or overseen civilian governments since Pakistan’s creation in 1947.
