The ex-wife of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday demanded his immediate release, citing “serious and worrying” reports about his treatment in jail.
Jemima Goldsmith said Pakistani authorities have barred her family and lawyers from visiting her, postponed court hearings, and barred her from calling her two sons since early September.
He used social media platforms
“She is now completely isolated, in solitary confinement, literally in the dark, with no contact with the outside world,” said Goldsmith, who was married to the former Pakistan cricket team captain from 1995 to 2004.
Over the past few weeks there have been serious and worrying developments regarding the prison treatment of my sons’ father, Imran Khan. Pakistani authorities have barred his family and his lawyers from meeting him. He has also postponed all court hearings. Other than this…
– Jemima Goldsmith (@Jemima_Khan) 15 October 2024
The couple have two sons, Sulaiman and Qasim, who live in London.
In July a panel of UN experts criticized Pakistan for arbitrarily detaining Khan in violation of international law to prevent him from running for political office.
Khan, 72, was Pakistan’s prime minister from 2018 to 2022, and has been embroiled in more than 200 legal cases since he was ousted in a parliamentary no-confidence vote he claims was orchestrated by the country’s powerful generals. .
He has been detained since August last year and barred from standing for office. After this he has applied to become the next Chancellor of Britain’s Oxford University.
Goldsmith said Khan’s family was also targeted, and her sisters and nephew were unlawfully arrested and imprisoned, while she faced rape and death threats from her former husband’s political opponents. Was.
The release of Khan, his nephew and sisters, as well as the re-establishment of contact with his sons, would provide “prima facie assurances that he is OK and is not being abused”, he said.
“I disagree with Ike on many political issues,” he wrote. “But this is not about politics – this is about the father of my children, their human rights and international law.”