On Monday, a Pakistani court acquitted former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi of charges accusing them of leaking state secrets.
The Islamabad High Court’s two-judge bench, led by Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, delivered a brief verdict exonerating both politicians.
Previously, a trial court had sentenced them to 10 years in prison in the case, widely known as the “cypher case,” which revolved around diplomatic communications between Washington and Islamabad that Khan alleged were part of a US conspiracy to topple his government two years ago.
Khan, who rose to power in 2018, lost a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022, just a year shy of completing his term.
Currently, Khan is jailed over an illegal marriage case with his wife, although his conviction in a corruption case was overturned by the same court last year.
