Pakistani military courts sentence supporters of former PM Khan after controversial trial

Dec. 21 (EUROPA PRESS) – Pakistani military courts have sentenced this Saturday 25 civilians arrested during the protests in May last year in favor of the release of the former prime minister and great opposition leader of the country, Imran Jan, after a judicial process questioned the powers of the Army to judge the civilian population.

The country’s Supreme Court ended up granting the military courts the possibility of trying these civilians – ultimately sentenced to between two and ten years in prison – for representing a threat to the security of the Army for staging concentrations in front of several strategic military sites such as the Rawalpindi Headquarters and the Mianwali Base of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) during the national wave of protests in favor of the imprisoned former president.

The protests ended with at least a dozen deaths and hundreds of injuries in clashes with the Police, in one more episode of the political crisis that the country has been going through for a few years now, where former Prime Minister Jan is imprisoned for cases of corruption that the former president attributes to a conspiracy orchestrated by the Sharif family, now in power, with the support of the United States.

The Army has celebrated the sentence but wanted to point out that “all those convicted retain the right of appeal and other legal remedies, as guaranteed by the law and the Constitution.” However, he maintains that the convictions have been based on “irrefutable evidence” against the accused.

“Based on a sustained narrative of hate and lies, politically orchestrated attacks were carried out against armed forces facilities, including the desecration of Shuhada monuments,” the Army stated.

Former Prime Minister Jan’s party, the Pakistan Justice Movement, has unequivocally condemned this Saturday a procedure that has taken place from beginning to end “in violation of international law and the Constitution of Pakistan”, where “colonels and commanders , as judges, have sentenced civilians who were tried in military courts.”

The PTI has denounced that “these civilians were detained for more than a year in harsh conditions and many were tortured into making false confessions”, accusations previously made by the party and denied by the military.