RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, Oct 23, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Jailed former Pakistan prime 
minister Imran Khan was indicted on Monday for allegedly leaking classified 
documents, a prosecutor said, a charge that carries a prison term of up to 14 
years.

Since being ousted from power last year, Khan has been tangled in a slew of 
legal cases he says are designed to stop him from contesting elections in 
January 2024, while his party has faced a massive crackdown.

The Supreme Court also ruled on Monday that military tribunals could not be 
used to try his supporters accused of rioting this year.

Populist Khan was jailed in August for three years over graft but when his 
sentence was overturned, he was instead kept in custody on the far more 
serious charge of sharing state documents.

"He has been indicted today and the charge was openly read out," Shah Khawar 
of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) said outside Adiala Jail, 
where Khan is being held.

The case relates to a cable that Khan touted as proof that he was ousted as 
part of a US conspiracy backed by the powerful military establishment, 
according to a report by the FIA.

The United States and Pakistan's military have denied the claim.

The vice-chairman of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Shah 
Mahmood Qureshi, a former foreign minister, has also been indicted over the 
case.

A PTI spokesman said both men were charged under the colonial-era Official 
Secrets Act in a trial "conducted within the court premises with no access to 
public or media".

"We are going to challenge it," Khan's lawyer Umar Khan Niazi told reporters.

Khan's lawyers say the crime he has been charged with carries a possible 14-
year prison term, and in the most extreme circumstances, the death penalty.

"He is facing legal matters but the intent of the regime is quite clear -- 
that they don't want to leave any corner for his escape, regardless of 
whether the charges are real or fabricated," political analyst Rasul Bakhsh 
Rais told AFP.

- Khan tangled up -

More than 100 people were due to be tried in Pakistan military courts over 
riots that erupted after Khan was briefly arrested in May, some of which 
targeted army installations.

"Under the Supreme Court verdict all the cases, which were being tried in the 
military courts, cannot be proceeded. They could only be held in the civilian 
courts," PTI lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan told reporters.

"Today's verdict is highly significant and it will help strengthen the 
constitution, law, and the civilian institutions of the country."

Authorities used mobile phone geo-fencing technology to track down those who 
police allege damaged military buildings.

Former cricketing superstar Khan enjoys enormous support in Pakistan but his 
campaign of defiance against the powerful military was met with fierce 
backlash by authorities.

Almost the entire senior party leadership were forced underground, with many 
abandoning the PTI.

Pakistan's military has directly ruled the country for roughly half of its 
76-year history, and continues to exercise enormous power.

The country is currently led by an interim government, with polls already 
pushed back several months.

Khan's primary opponent, three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, returned to 
Pakistan on Saturday, ending four years of self-imposed exile.

Sharif was jailed for graft and barred from contesting the 2018 elections -- 
in which Khan swept to power -- but he left mid-way through his sentence to 
receive medical care in the United Kingdom, ignoring court orders to return.

Prior to his comeback, a court granted Sharif protective bail to pave the way 
for him to arrive in his political heartland of Lahore on the weekend.

The fortunes of Pakistan's leaders rise and fall on their relationship with 
the military and Pakistan's courts are often used to tie up lawmakers in 
lengthy proceedings that rights monitors criticise for stifling dissent.