The working group says that the prosecution of Imran in the cipher case "lacks a grounding in law," noting that his actions did not appear to violate the Official Secrets Act.
NEW YORK: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-July 1st, 2024) The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on Monday declared that the detention and prosecution of PTI founder Imran Khan in the Toshakhana and cipher cases were “without legal basis” and politically motivated to exclude him from the political arena.
In its 99th session from March 18-27, the UN body reviewed the legal inconsistencies and irregularities in the court proceedings against Imran Khan and concluded that his detention was arbitrary and intended to disqualify him from running for political office.
The working group criticized Imran's conviction in the Toshakhana case, which involved a summary judgment delivered in absentia, and his subsequent arrest, during which law enforcement personnel allegedly broke into his residence and assaulted him and his staff.
Besides it, the working group stated that the prosecution of Imran in the cipher case "lacks a grounding in law," noting that his actions did not appear to violate the Official Secrets Act. The cipher case involved a diplomatic document that the Federal Investigation Agency alleged was never returned by then-Prime Minister Imran Khan, who claimed it contained a threat from the US to topple his government.
The UN group observed that the timing of the prosecutions in multiple cases effectively prevented Imran from contesting the general election originally scheduled for November 2023. They concluded that the prosecutions aimed to remove him from the election and restrict his party's participation.
The working group emphasized that, in the absence of a rebuttal from the government, the prosecutions seemed related to Imran's leadership of the PTI and aimed at silencing him and his supporters. They concluded that his arrest and detention were arbitrary and recommended his immediate release, compensation, and an independent investigation into the circumstances of his detention.
On August 5, 2023, a trial court in Islamabad convicted Imran Khan in a case filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for concealing state gifts, sentencing him to three years in prison. Punjab police arrested him later that day at his residence in Lahore. Following the conviction, the ECP disqualified him for five years, though the Islamabad High Court later suspended his three-year sentence.
