Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has spent the night time in a high-security jail after he was handed a three-year jail time period for illegally promoting state presents.
The well-liked opposition chief, who was ousted from energy in a no-confidence vote final April, was arrested at his house within the jap metropolis of Lahore on Saturday, quickly after a courtroom handed down its verdict.
It is the second time the 70-year-old former cricketer has been arrested this 12 months, having been held on corruption costs in May earlier than Pakistan’s supreme courtroom ordered his launch days later.
It sparked a wave of lethal protests that noticed Khan’s followers assault authorities and army property throughout the nation.
In a video message recorded in anticipation of his newest arrest, Khan urged individuals to peacefully take to the streets, saying: “You should not sit quietly at home.”
But widespread protests are but to materialise, with supporters fearing the results following a crackdown together with arrests of members of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) occasion after the clashes in May.
Khan was held over Saturday night time in Attock jail, within the jap Punjab province, which has armed guards in watchtowers and is infamous for its harsh circumstances, with inmates together with convicted militants.
Authorities have tightened safety across the jail, placing up limitations and blocking roads to maintain individuals away.
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PTI lawyer Shoaib Shaheen stated police on the jail had refused entry to a authorized workforce that went to go to Khan.
The politician has denied any wrongdoing and his political occasion says it is going to enchantment the responsible verdict for unlawfully promoting state presents whereas he was prime minister between 2018 and 2022.
The sentence may bar him from standing within the nation’s upcoming elections and critics say the case is politically motivated as authorities concern Khan’s reputation and enormous assist base.
Pakistan’s info minister Maryam Aurangzeb denied Khan’s arrest was linked to the elections and stated he had been “proven guilty of illegal practices, corruption, concealing assets and wrongly declaring wealth in tax returns”.
Since he was ousted, Khan has been hit with greater than 150 authorized instances, together with allegations of corruption, terrorism, and inciting violence over the protests in May.
Source: information.sky.com”