ISLAMABAD (AP) — A United Nations human rights working group on Monday called for the immediate release of Pakistan’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, saying he had been detained “arbitrarily in violation of international laws.”
The Geneva-based United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention made this demand after examining Khan's case in which he was sentenced last year on charges of corruption.
Khan has been facing multiple prison sentences since 2022 when he was ousted through a vote of no-confidence in the parliament. There was no immediate comment from the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who replaced Khan after his ouster.
Khan has been held in prison since August 2023 when a court awarded him a three-year prison sentence after finding him guilty of hiding assets after selling state gifts. It led to a ban on Khan from taking part in politics and contesting the Feb. 8 elections, which his party says were rigged.
The Election Commission of Pakistan, which oversaw the vote, has denied the vote-rigging allegations.
Despite his conviction in multiple cases, Khan remains the leading opposition figure.
Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, or PTI, which has a strong presence in the parliament, hailed the demand of the U.N. group, which said Khan’s detention in the graft case “had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for office. It said “Khan was detained for exercising his right to freedom of expression or opinion” and that he was also denied a “fair trial and due process rights.”
The U.N. working group demanded Khan's immediate release, saying it was an “appropriate remedy.”
The group further said Khan’s conviction in the graft case was “part of a much larger campaign of repression targeting the PTI generally and Khan specifically”.
It said, “In the lead up to Pakistan’s February 2024 general elections, PTI candidates were arrested, tortured, and intimidated into leaving the party; PTI rallies were disrupted and blocked; and the party was deprived of its iconic cricket bat symbol, forcing its candidates to run as independents."
The U.N. group also said Khan himself was facing over 150 politically motivated criminal cases, and just days before the election, he was convicted in three more cases and sentenced to an additional 10 years, 14 years, and seven years in prison, respectively.
“For Khan, who is 71 years old, the combined prison term of 34 years amounts to a life sentence,” the group said. Khan’s spokesman Zulfi Bukhari, welcomed the group’s findings and demands for Khan’s release.
Khan’s party won the most seats in the Feb.8 vote but fell short of a majority to form a government.
FILE - Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks during a news conference at his home, May 18, 2023, in Lahore, Pakistan. On Monday, July 1, 2024, a United Nations human rights working group called for the immediate release of Pakistan’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Khan, saying he had been detained “arbitrarily in violation of international laws.” (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary, File)
DETROIT (AP) — A man charged with killing a Detroit synagogue leader during a violent overnight encounter denied any role Wednesday, telling jurors that he never entered her home but had discovered and touched her bloody body outdoors.
Michael Jackson-Bolanos repeatedly said “absolutely not” when his attorney asked if he broke into Samantha Woll's townhouse and stabbed her last October.
Woll's slaying immediately raised speculation about whether it was some type of antisemitic retaliation amid the Israel-Hamas war, though police quickly knocked down that theory.
Jackson-Bolanos acknowledged that he didn't call police to report what he had found.
“When I realized she was dead I wanted nothing to do with the entire situation,” he told the jury. “I'm a Black guy in the middle of the night breaking into cars and I found myself standing in front of a dead white woman. That doesn't look good at all.”
His testimony was a dramatic moment in a trial that has mostly centered on circumstantial evidence. Police said Jackson-Bolanos' jacket had spots of Woll's blood. While there is video of him walking in the area, there's no evidence of him being inside her home.
Woll, 40, was found outside her home, east of downtown Detroit, hours after returning from a wedding. Investigators believe she was attacked inside the residence but got outdoors before collapsing.
She was stabbed multiple times and had head wounds. Jurors saw pictures of blood smeared on the floor of her townhouse.
Jackson-Bolanos told the jury that he was tugging on car doors at 4 a.m. to try to find unlocked vehicles when he saw Woll's body. His story suggested how her blood could have ended up on his coat.
“I didn’t shake the body,” he said. “I just checked the neck — no air, no breath or nothing. Once I realized I just touched a dead person I just grabbed the bag and I left.”
Jackson-Bolanos, who has past criminal convictions, said he feared calling police because he didn't want to explain what he was doing in the middle of the night.
It took weeks for police to settle on Jackson-Bolanos. Investigators first arrested a former boyfriend who made a hysterical call to 911 and told authorities that he believed he might have killed Woll but couldn't remember it.
Jurors saw video of the sobbing man's encounter with police last November in a parking lot.
“I had motive and opportunity and I don't know what the third one is but I probably had that, too,” he told officers.
But the man, who had been under treatment for depression, testified at trial that he had no role in Woll's death.
“I believe now it was an adverse reaction to a medication,” he said of delusions.
Woll's sister, Monica Rosen, said she had told police soon after the slaying that another man had been stalking Woll. But she testified that she was in shock at the time and “had no basis to use those words.”
“My sister was the epitome of good. She had no enemies to my knowledge,” Rosen said.
Woll was president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue. She was also active in Democratic politics, working for U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin and state Attorney General Dana Nessel. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Woll was a “beacon in her community.”
Follow Ed White at https://twiter.com/edwritez
Defendant Michael Jackson-Bolanos, on trial for the murder of Samantha Woll, testifies in his defense, Wednesday, July 3, 2024, at Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit. (Clarence Tabb, Jr./Detroit News via AP)
