Amid speculations over the health of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who remains locked in jail, his sons have claimed in an interview with Sky News that he is being ‘psychologically tortured’ in a ‘death cell’.
Imran's sons, Kasim and Sulaiman Khan, told Sky News' The World with Yalda Hakim that they have not been able to speak with their father for months.
Khan was imprisoned by Pakistani authorities in August 2023.
“He has been in a solitary confinement cell for over two years, where he has had filthy water, he is around inmates who are dying of hepatitis, the conditions are disgusting, and also he is completely isolated from any human contact,” Kasim told the publication, adding, “It's getting harder to see a route out at this point. We're trying to have faith. But at the same time, right now, the conditions are getting worse.”
They also claimed that Khan is being held in a cell where he spends 23 hours, and only gets sunlight for about 20 minutes to an hour.
The World Cup-winning former Pakistan cricket team captain is being kept in “completely substandard conditions that don't meet international law for any sort of prisoner”, as per Sulaiman.
They revealed that, according to a spokesperson for the Pakistan Army, Khan is currently in full isolation.
Meanwhile, Suhail Afridi, the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said on Sunday that efforts are underway to suppress Khan.
Afridi himself was denied permission to meet the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, of which he is also a member.
UN calls for an end to Khan's confinement
The United Nations has also asked the government of Pakistan to take action on the reports of the inhumane conditions in which Khan has been left in prison.
UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Alice Jill Edwards, last week, said, “I call on Pakistani authorities to ensure that Khan's conditions of detention fully comply with international norms and standards,” adding, “Since his transfer to Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on 26 September 2023, Imran Khan has reportedly been held for excessive periods in solitary confinement, confined for 23 hours a day in his cell, and with highly restricted access to the outside world,” she said. “His cell is reportedly under constant camera surveillance.”
