Demanding his release UN experts: Imran Khan’s detention violates international law

A United Nations panel of experts considered in a report published yesterday, Monday, that the detention of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is "arbitrary and in violation of international law," calling for his "immediate" release.

The UN working group, called the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, said in its report that it expressed concern about the multiple legal cases brought against Khan since he was ousted from power in April 2022.

Khan's deprivation of liberty violates a range of laws and norms and is "arbitrary," it said in the report, dated March 25 and published Monday. It said it concluded that Khan's detention "has no legal basis and appears to be intended to prevent him from running for political office."

In their report, the UN experts stressed that “the appropriate solution is to release Khan immediately and provide him with compensation and other remedies in accordance with international law.” They continued: “Therefore, from the outset, these prosecutions were not legally justified and appear to have been used for political purposes.”

The working group, made up of five independent experts whose opinions are not binding on the United Nations, called in its report on the Pakistani government to "take the necessary measures to rectify Khan's situation without delay and bring it into line with relevant international standards."

Khan, who served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022, has been pursued by more than 200 lawsuits since leaving power in what he sees as a campaign aimed at preventing him from returning to power.

The former prime minister has been in prison since August and is barred from running for office, but Pakistan's Supreme Court suspended a 14-year prison sentence handed down to the former cricket star and his wife in April, but the conviction remains in effect.

In early June, Khan was acquitted of the treason charge for which he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He remains in Adiala jail, south of the capital, Islamabad, after being convicted of illegal marriage.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Khan's party, called the expert group's opinion a "major victory." Party spokesman Sayyad Zulfiqar Bukhari said the report "shows beyond any doubt that Imran Khan is innocent and has been illegally imprisoned."