Jemima Khan Goldsmith, the ex-wife of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, has claimed that there have been “serious and disturbing changes” over his treatment in prison.
Mrs. Khan he has been detained since August 2023 on several different charges that his supporters say are politically motivated.
Even though he is in prison with his third wife Bushra Bibi acquitted of charges of illegal marriage.
Now Mrs Khan Goldsmith, who was married to the former cricketer from 1995 to 2004, has written in a post on X that Pakistani authorities suspended all visits from family and lawyers.
Calling for his release, Khan Goldsmith also claimed that weekly phone calls to their sons, who are British living in London, stopped on September 10 and that she was told that the electricity and lights had been turned off in his cell.
Khan is no longer allowed to leave his cell and the prison cook “has been placed on leave,” she added.
“He is now completely isolated, in solitary confinement, literally in the dark, with no contact with the outside world. “His lawyers are concerned for his safety and well-being,” she added.
Her intervention comes after her ex-husband's political party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said his health was “reportedly deteriorating… and his life is clearly in danger.”
Mrs. Khan Goldsmith, a British social activist turned journalist and screenwriter, also revealed that she had received rape threats because of Pakistani politics and that she had brought Khan's case to the Foreign Secretary David Lammy – but he received no answer.
“It's not about politics – it's about the father of my children, his human rights and international law. “For the past few years, I have been intimidated and bullied into silence by PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz, the country's ruling party) goons, including rape threats and countless conspiracy theories.”
She also called for the release of Khan's nephew and two sisters who were detained by Pakistani authorities.
In July, Khan and Bibi, whom he married in 2018, were acquitted after being found guilty of violating Islamic law.
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They were sentenced to seven years in prison after it was found that the couple had failed to keep the legal three-month gap between their divorce from a previous marriage and their own.
However, both remain in prison after Pakistani authorities issued new arrest warrants for Khan shortly after the acquittal of three cases related to violence against the army and other state bodies in May 2023.
He was also charged last week with attempted murder in connection with the death of a police officer during violent protests by his supporters last month.
Supporters of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party throw stones during an anti-government rally in Islamabad earlier this month. Photo: Reuters
He was originally arrested on corruption charges – which the Supreme Court later ruled illegal – and told Sky News at the time that democracy in Pakistan “lowest level ever„.
So far, Khan has been involved in over 150 cases and in several cases he was sentenced to prison terms of three, seven, 10 and 14 years, to be served concurrently under Pakistani law.
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He maintained his innocence and said the cases were an attempt to sideline him politically by keeping him out of the public arena.
Pakistan's Ministry of Law and Justice, the country's high commission in London and the British Foreign Office did not respond to Sky News' requests for comment.
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