Imran Khan to be tried in jail ‘for his own safety’

Islamabad — Jailed former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan was denied an open court trial on Tuesday as ordered by a high court after the government submitted reports citing threats to his life, his lawyer said.

The special court hearing the case later said Khan’s trial on the charge of leaking state secrets will be held at the jail, but it will be open to media and the public, the lawyer said.

The trial will begin afresh on Friday, the court said. It has been conducting the trial in prison since Khan was indicted on the charges in October.

The Islamabad high court had ruled last week that holding Khan’s trial inside the jail premises on security concerns is illegal and ordered it be restarted in an open court.

Khan has denied the charges against him. The 71-year-old former cricket star has been embroiled in a tangle of political and legal battles since he was ousted as prime minister. He has not been seen in public since he was jailed for three years in August for unlawfully selling state gifts while in office from 2018 to 2022.

Khan had been appearing in courts before his August arrest protected by his personal security guards. But he has also sought exemptions from personal appearances, often citing threats to his safety, especially after he survived an assassination attempt late in 2022.

“Jail reports have been submitted citing that Imran Khan has life threats according to various intelligence and police reports,” said the lawyer, Naeem Panjutha, in a post on social media platform X.

The latest charges against Khan relate to a classified communication sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in the US in 2022, which Khan is accused of making public.

The graft conviction has put a five-year bar on Khan contesting elections. He denies any wrongdoing and has said all the charges against him, including the graft case and the leak of the communication, were cooked up at the behest of the military to block him from the February 8 general election.

The military has dismissed Khan’s allegations.

The election is shaping up to be a fight between Khan’s party and that of another ousted former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. Both leaders had fallen out with the military, which has ruled directly or overseen civilian governments since Pakistan’s creation in 1947.

Reuters