ISLAMABAD, January 30. /TASS/. A Pakistani court has sentenced the country's former prime minister, leader of the opposition Movement for Justice (MJP) party Imran Khan and MJP vice-chairman, ex-Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to 10 years in prison on charges of violating the state secrets law, the Geo TV channel reports.

The verdict was announced by a special court judge at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. Both Khan and Qureshi were present.

Khan led Pakistan's Cabinet in 2018-2022. He was voted out of office for loss of confidence on April 10, 2022.

The investigation against Khan began after he publicly claimed on March 27, 2022 to have received an encrypted telegram from Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, D.C., which, according to the politician, stated that US officials in a conversation with the head of the diplomatic mission recommended that the prime minister be removed in view of his pro-Russian stance on Ukraine as demonstrated during his visit to Moscow in February 2022.