Pakistan’s High Court on Monday overturned the treason conviction of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who remains jailed on other charges.
The conviction was one of three handed down to Khan ahead of February elections which he claims were rigged to prevent him being returned to power.
The verdict by a two-judge bench of the Islamabad High Court was announced by Chief Justice Ammar Farooq, as witnessed by an AFP court reporter.
“This is the first major case that was part of the political persecution against Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi that has been crushed,” Salman Safdar, a lawyer for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, told AFP outside the court.
Khan was convicted along with former foreign minister Qureshi for disclosing secret cables sent to Islamabad in 2022 by Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington.
Trump had claimed the code was evidence the US was conspiring to remove him from power in 2022 when a vote of no confidence would see the opposition take him into office.
The US and Pakistani militaries deny the charges.
He was also convicted of corruption over gifts he received while he was prime minister from 2018 to 2022.
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