Jemima Khan Goldsmith, the ex-wife of former prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan, has said there have been “serious and concerning developments” about his treatment in prison.
Mr Khan has been detained since August 2023 on several different charges that his supporters say are politically motivated.
He remains in prison along with his third wife Bushra Bibi despite being acquitted of unlawful marriage charges.
Now Ms Khan Goldsmith, who was married to the former cricket player between 1995 and 2004, said in a post on X that Pakistani authorities have stopped all visits from family and lawyers.
Calling for his release, Ms Khan Goldsmith also claimed that weekly phone calls to their sons, who are British and live in London, stopped on 10 September, and that she has been told electricity and lights in his cell have been switched off.
Mr Khan is no longer allowed to leave his cell and the jail’s cook “has been sent on leave,” she said.
“He is now completely isolated, in solitary confinement, literally in the dark, with no contact with the outside world. His lawyers are concerned about his safety and well-being,” she added.
Her intervention comes as her ex-husband’s political party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said his health is “reportedly deteriorating… and his life is clearly in danger”.
Ms Khan Goldsmith, a British journalist and screenwriter, also revealed she had received rape threats over Pakistani politics, and that she had highlighted Mr Khan’s case to Foreign Secretary David Lammy – but had not received a response.
“This is not about politics – it’s about my children’s father, his human rights and international law. For the past few years, I’ve been bullied and harassed 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 Mr Khan’s nephew and two sisters, who have all been detained by Pakistani authorities.
In July, Mr Khan and Ms Bibi, who he married in 2018, were acquitted after being found guilty of breaking Islamic law.
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They had been handed a seven-year sentence after the couple was found not to have observed the legally required three-month interval between the divorce from a previous marriage and their own.
But the pair remain imprisoned after Pakistani authorities issued fresh arrest warrants for Mr Khan shortly after the acquittal over three cases linked to violence against the military and other state bodies in May 2023.
Last week, he was also charged with attempted murder over the death of a policeman during violent protests by his supporters last month.
He was originally arrested on corruption charges – which were later ruled illegal by the Supreme Court – and told Sky News at the time that democracy in Pakistan is at “an all-time low“.
Mr Khan has so far been embroiled in more than 150 cases and has been sentenced in several, with jail terms including three years, seven years, 10 years and 14 years, to be served concurrently under Pakistani law.
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He has maintained his innocence and has said that the cases are an attempt to sideline him politically by keeping him out of the public arena.
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Pakistan’s ministry of law and justice, the country’s high commission in London, and the UK’s Foreign Office did not respond to Sky News’ requests for comment.
