Cipher case: Imran to be indicted again on Dec 12

Islamabad, December 4

A special court in Pakistan on Monday ruled that jailed former PM Imran Khan and his close aide ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi would be indicted again on December 12 in the cipher case for allegedly leaking state secrets and violating the laws of the country.

The case was heard in the Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi. The in-prison hearing of Khan, 71, and Qureshi, 67, began from the start on Saturday after a ruling by the Islamabad High Court last month declared the jail trial illegal on procedural grounds and also nullified its proceedings.

The judge said that fresh indictment was mandatory in the light of the Islamabad High Court judgment which declared all proceedings illegal after ruling against the jail trial on procedural grounds. It resulted in a fresh process to initiate an in-prison trial of the due after completing all procedures and starting the case from the start.