Jemima Goldsmith says she has been threatened with rape on rare occasions over Imran Khan’s capture

Jemima Goldsmith has spoken out about the fate of her ex-husband Imran Khan, criticizing “serious and worrying developments” regarding Pakistan’s treatment of the jailed former prime minister and calling for his immediate release.

The film producer, who was married to Khan from 1995 to 2004 and has two sons who are both British citizens, expressed concern about Khan’s treatment in prison and accused Shehbaz Sharif’s government of restricting his access to lawyers and family visits. denied and even cut off access to lawyers and family visits. electricity to his cell.

Khan has been held in Adiala Prison in Rawalpindi in northern Pakistan since 2023, after a court handed him a three-year prison sentence in a corruption case. In total, he faces around 150 charges, all of which his party says are politically motivated.

Ms Goldsmith raised her concerns late on Tuesday in a series of Twitter/X posts, expressing her reluctance to speak out. “Over the past few years, I have been bullied and silenced by PML-N (Pakistani ruling party) goons, including rape threats and numerous conspiracy theories,” she wrote.

Ms Goldsmith said that in addition to cutting off personal visits in breach of a court order, prison authorities have prevented Khan from calling his two sons, Sulaiman and Kasim, who live in London, on a weekly basis.

She said the electricity in his cell had been cut off and he was not allowed out at any time, while the prison cook had been put on leave.

“He is now completely isolated, in solitary confinement, literally in the dark, with no contact with the outside world,” she said, adding that his lawyers were concerned for his safety and well-being.

Ms Goldsmith’s comments echo concerns raised by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party in recent days.

She leveled the allegations against the Pakistani government at a time when Islamabad is hosting a two-day SCO summit, in which Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar rarely participated.

Pakistani police have arrested dozens of Khan’s supporters and members of his PTI party who tried to march through the capital demanding his release.

Ms Goldsmith also accused the Pakistani government of detaining members of Khan’s family in an “attempt to silence them and all political opposition”.

Khan’s cousin, Hassan Niazi, has been in military custody since August 2023, while the cricketer’s sisters, Uzma and Aleema Khan, were held in jail for speaking out in support of their brother.

“I disagree with Imran Khan on many political issues. But this is not about politics – it is about the father of my children, his human rights and international law,” Ms Goldsmith said.

“I owe it to my children to try to create some awareness about what is happening in Pakistan,” she added.

A U.N. human rights panel called for Khan’s immediate release in July, saying he had been detained “arbitrarily in violation of international law.”

The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said the trials against the former prime minister were part of a “much larger campaign of repression” against him and his party.

Khan was barred from holding political office and his party was barred from participating in national elections earlier this year. He has since applied from prison to become the next chancellor of Britain’s University of Oxford.

The Pakistani government has denied allegations that Khan is being arbitrarily detained and has said it wants to ban his PTI party altogether. She accuses him of inciting his supporters to violent unrest targeting facilities linked to the military establishment. It has also accused him of foreign conspiracy and “treason” over his decision to dissolve parliament in the final days of his government in 2022. He was eventually removed from power in a vote of no confidence.