ISLAMABAD: Lawyers for former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan filed an appeal on Tuesday (Aug 8) against his conviction for graft, as he languished in a small cell in a century-old prison at the start of a three-year jail term.
The former international cricket star was arrested at the weekend and whisked to jail after being found guilty in one of the more than 200 cases he has faced since being ousted from office by a vote of no confidence in April 2022.
Unless overturned, the conviction will rule him out of contesting upcoming elections.
Pakistan’s election commission on Tuesday issued a statement officially disqualifying Khan for five years.
He is being held at a colonial-era prison on the outskirts of historical Attock city, around 60km west of the capital Islamabad.
“We’ve submitted an appeal … our plea requests a temporary suspension of the trial court’s ruling and seeks bail,” Khan’s lawyer Gohar Khan told AFP.
“The court will take up the case tomorrow and because the sentence is short we hope that Imran Khan will be granted bail in (several) weeks’ time.”
Another of his lawyers warned authorities would try to delay the process.
“Currently there is no rule of law in Pakistan, we are rushing from one court to another,” said Mishal Yousafzai.
On Monday, Khan’s spokesman Raoof Hasan told AFP the ex-leader was being held “in deplorable conditions not fit for any human”.
“But he is in good spirits … he said to ‘tell the people that I will not compromise on my principles’.”