(Geneva) A panel of UN experts considers that the detention of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is arbitrary and contrary to international law, calling “immediately” for his release.
In an advisory released Monday, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention expressed concern over the multiple legal cases opened against Mr Khan since he was ousted from power in April 2022.
The same source believes that his deprivation of liberty violates a series of laws and standards and is “arbitrary.”
The task force said it had concluded that Mr Khan’s detention “has no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from political office”.
“Therefore, from the outset, these proceedings were not justified in law and appear to have been instrumentalised for political purposes,” the working group added in its opinion, dated 25 March, but only made public on Monday.
The working group, composed of five independent experts whose opinions are not binding on the UN, called on the Pakistani government to “take the necessary measures to remedy Mr Khan’s situation without delay and to bring it into line with relevant international standards.”
“The appropriate solution would be to release Mr Khan immediately and provide him with enforceable compensation and other remedies, in accordance with international law,” the experts said.
Imran Khan, who was prime minister from 2018 to 2022, has been embroiled in more than 200 legal cases since leaving power – a campaign he says is designed to prevent him from regaining power.
He has been imprisoned since last August and prevented from running in elections.
However, the former cricket star and his wife had their 14-year prison sentence for corruption suspended by a Pakistani high court in April. But the conviction itself remains in place.
In early June, Mr Khan was also acquitted of a treason charge, for which he had been sentenced to 10 years in prison at first instance.
He remains in Adiala prison in the south of the capital Islamabad after being convicted of illegal marriage.
Neither the Interior Ministry nor the Information Ministry could be immediately reached for comment.
Mr Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), called the experts’ opinion a “huge victory”.
“It shows beyond any doubt that Imran Khan is innocent and has been illegally imprisoned,” PTI spokesperson Syad Zulfiqar Bukhari said in a statement.