Feed aggregator

UN Security Council to discuss North Korea human rights

Voice of America’s immigration news - June 3, 2024 - 18:29
united nations — The U.N. Security Council will hold a public meeting in mid-June on human rights in North Korea while South Korea holds the council’s rotating presidency. “Some countries have some reservations about human rights issues being discussed in the Security Council,” South Korean Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook said in announcing the session on Monday. “We know their logic.” Countries including Russia and China oppose human rights issues being discussed in the 15-nation council, which is tasked with maintaining international peace and security. They, and other like-minded countries, argue that human rights issues should be handled in designated U.N. fora, such as the Geneva-based Human Rights Council or the General Assembly committee that deals with rights issues. They could call for a procedural vote to try to block the meeting, in which case at least nine of the council’s 15 members would need to support the session. Hwang told reporters at a news conference launching Seoul's June presidency that unlike other countries, North Korea’s human rights situation is part of the council’s official agenda. “This is unique to North Korea, and there are some good reasons for it,” he said. The “DPRK human rights and humanitarian situation is closely interlinked with North Korea’s aggressive weapons — their aggressive WMD [weapons of mass destruction] and nuclear development.” DPRK is the abbreviation for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The council was last publicly briefed on the issue on August 17, 2023, by U.N. Human Rights chief Volker Türk, who said that many of the severe and widespread rights violations in North Korea are directly linked to the regime’s pursuit of nuclear and ballistic missile technology. In 2014, a U.N. Commission of Inquiry found that North Korea’s rights violations had risen to the level of crimes against humanity and included murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape and enforced disappearance, among other crimes. Relations between Seoul and Pyongyang have deteriorated in recent months. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said he has given up on reunification with the South and designated it a foreign enemy state. He has also enshrined the country’s illicit nuclear program into its constitution. Washington says North Korea is advancing its prohibited weapons program “at an alarming rate” and has launched more than 100 ballistic missiles since the beginning of 2022. And in one of its more bizarre actions, last week Pyongyang sent balloons filled with trash and feces into the skies over South Korea, dropping them on busy streets. Fed up, South Korea said Monday it will fully suspend a 2018 military agreement with the North that is aimed at lowering tensions. Seoul partially suspended the agreement last November to protest the launch of a North Korean spy satellite.

European powers submit Iran censure motion to IAEA board

Voice of America’s immigration news - June 3, 2024 - 18:12
Vienna, Austria — Britain, France and Germany late on Monday submitted a resolution to the U.N. nuclear watchdog's board, censuring Iran over its lack of cooperation with the agency despite U.S. opposition, two diplomats said.  It was the latest of numerous diplomatic maneuvers by Western powers who fear Iran might be seeking to develop a nuclear weapon — a claim the Islamic Republic denies.  "The text has been formally tabled," one diplomatic source told AFP, with a second confirming the information.  The move to submit a motion against Iran was driven by an "urgency to react to the gravity of the situation," diplomats told AFP earlier.  The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says Iran is the only non-nuclear weapon state to enrich uranium to the high level of 60%, while it keeps accumulating large uranium stockpiles.  Uranium enriched to 60% is close to the levels of 90% needed for atomic weapons and well above the 3.67% used for nuclear power stations.  The board of governors passed the last such resolution criticizing Iran in November 2022, prompting Tehran to retaliate by stepping up its uranium enrichment activities.  At the opening of the meeting on Monday, IAEA head Rafael Grossi reiterated his concerns, saying: "It's unacceptable to talk about nuclear weapons, as some people do in Iran."  Referring to the limited oversight the agency now has on Tehran's nuclear program, Grossi warned that the current "knowledge gap ... is making it very difficult to go back to diplomacy."  At the last board meeting in March, European powers shelved their plans to confront Iran due to a lack of support from Washington.  The United States denies it is hampering European efforts to hold Tehran accountable but fears a censure could aggravate Middle East tensions ahead of U.S. presidential elections in November, diplomats say.  'Essential and urgent'  Cooperation between Iran and the IAEA has severely deteriorated in recent years, with the U.N. nuclear watchdog struggling for assurances that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful.  Diplomats say maintaining the current policy of inaction amid Iran's escalation is no longer tenable and the U.S. position could change ahead of the IAEA vote scheduled for later this week.  In May, Grossi visited Iran in a bid to improve cooperation, calling for "concrete results ... soon."  In the meantime, the death of Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month has put negotiations on hold, with diplomats suggesting Tehran was using the accident as an excuse to stall.  Grossi, however, rejected that claim Monday, saying the pause was "not part of any delaying tactic" by Iran.  He added he was ready to "sit down with the new authorities" after Iran's presidential election on June 28.  The draft resolution obtained by AFP says it is "essential and urgent" that Tehran provides "technically credible explanations" for the presence of uranium particles found at two undeclared locations in Iran.  Furthermore, Iran has to "reverse its withdrawal of the designations of several experienced Agency inspectors," and "without delay" reconnect the cameras used to monitor nuclear activities.  The draft also notes the "concerns" surrounding "recent public statements made in Iran ... regarding its technical capabilities to produce nuclear weapons and possible changes to Iran's nuclear doctrine."  'Serious and effective response'  Iran has gradually broken away from its commitments under the nuclear deal it struck with world powers in 2015.  The landmark deal provided Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its atomic program.  But it fell apart after the unilateral withdrawal of the United States under then-president Donald Trump in 2018.   Efforts to revive the deal have failed.  "A showdown at the board reflects a wider impasse over Iran, with little diplomatic activity but increasing concern over a program that continues to expand in scale under limited international oversight," Naysan Rafati, an Iran analyst at the Crisis Group, told AFP.  Ali Shamkhani, a political adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, warned Saturday on X that if "some misguided European countries ... adopt a hostile stance towards Iran ... at the board, they will face a serious and effective response from our country."  Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia's ambassador to the international organization in Vienna, wrote on X on Sunday that tabling an "anti-Iranian resolution" could risk "seriously deteriorating the situation."

Trump returns to campaign trail after guilty verdicts 

Voice of America’s immigration news - June 3, 2024 - 18:02
Donald Trump returns to political campaigning this week as the first convicted felon to run for U.S. president as a major-party candidate. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns looks at how voters are reacting to the verdict on the campaign trail.

VOA Newscasts

Voice of America’s immigration news - June 3, 2024 - 18:00
Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Zimbabwean authorities urge citizens to cycle to work

Voice of America’s immigration news - June 3, 2024 - 17:59
HARARE, ZIMBABWE — Faced with a broken public transit system, poor road conditions, fuel shortages and low salaries, Zimbabwean authorities are urging citizens to cycle to work, ostensibly for health reasons and to promote a clean environment, as bicycles do not use fossil fuels.  Jacob Mafume, the mayor of Harare, said if Zimbabweans in greater numbers chose to cycle to work, there would be less congestion and fewer road accidents, among other benefits.    “Most of the health problems that we have in society now is that we are sitting all the time. We sit at work. We sit in the car, as we [drive] there. So it does not help as a society to be built on unhealthy practices,” Mafume said. “But also, it is also cheaper on the budget: People can focus on other issues like housing, education and even investment, if they are on bicycles. And also, it is environmentally friendly. It is less impact on our environment. And people would thank us later for this, as they will live to ripe old age in fitness.”  Ngoni Nyamadzawo, a part-time gardener in Harare’s affluent suburbs, cycles daily as a way to reduce costs to save his average salary of $150 a month.  “I see cycling as a saving measure. If I did not cycle, I would use $30 a month for transport,” Nyamadzawo said.  Segio Tarwirei works for a local NGO, Tree Knowers and Growers, which advocates for more trees. He cycles daily and encourages Zimbabweans to join him. “Cycling has so many physical benefits,” he said. “Driving is not good for the environment as cars release dirt into the atmosphere. As an organization — of Tree Knowers and Growers — we encourage people to cycle. If I was using public transport, I would be paying $4 daily, at the end of the month it would be a lot of money, so cycling is good for health and the pocket.”  Tarwirei said he would like the city of Harare to rehabilitate cycling tracks, which have been neglected for years.   Mayor Mafume said he is aware of the dilapidated state of cycling lanes in the capital city.  “We are going to revamp them,” he said. “One of the issues that we have to do is to put a cycle track running across Harare Drive. Once we have a cycle track circling the city, then all the other cycle tracks can fit into Harare Drive.”   Harare Drive is the city’s longest road and circles Harare. 

Iran's top diplomat confirms talks with US

Voice of America’s immigration news - June 3, 2024 - 17:34
Beirut, Lebanon — Iran's acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri said Monday his government was engaged in negotiations with arch-foe the United States hosted by the Gulf sultanate of Oman.  Asked about the issue at a news conference during a visit to Beirut, Bagheri said, "we have always continued our negotiations ... and they have never stopped."  Washington and Tehran have not had diplomatic relations since the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.  The British daily Financial Times reported in March that Bagheri was involved in indirect talks with the United States in Oman in early 2024, against the backdrop of heightened regional tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.  The United States is Israel's close ally and top provider of military assistance, while Iran backs the Palestinian militant group Hamas.  Bagheri arrived Monday in Lebanon, on his first foreign trip since assuming the interim role following the death of Hossein Amirabdollahian in a helicopter crash last month that also killed Iran's president, Ebrahim Raisi.  Bagheri said the choice of destination for his visit was "because Lebanon is the cradle of resistance" against Israel.  Iran supports the powerful Lebanese group Hezbollah financially and militarily.  The Shiite Muslim movement, a Hamas ally, has traded regular cross-border fire with Israel since the start of the Gaza war in early October.  Bagheri, Iran's former top nuclear negotiator, said discussions with Western powers about Tehran's atomic activities were ongoing.  Western governments fear Iran is seeking to develop a nuclear weapon — a claim the Islamic republic denies.  "We advise them not to miss the opportunity any further and compensate for the actions that they must have carried out but didn't," Bagheri said, as a meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog opened in Vienna.  Diplomats told AFP that Britain, France and Germany will seek to censure Tehran over its lack of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at the organization's board meeting.  At the last board meeting in March, European powers shelved their plans to confront Iran because of a lack of support from Washington.  Bagheri is due to travel from Lebanon to Syria on Tuesday.

South Africa’s ANC to start closely watched coalition talks

Voice of America’s immigration news - June 3, 2024 - 17:23
Johannesburg  — Talks to form South Africa’s first national coalition government are expected to begin this week after the governing ANC party lost its majority for the first time.  Despite the heavy blow his African National Congress party took at the polls, President Cyril Ramaphosa showed humor at a ceremony announcing the official South African election results Sunday night.   After an electoral commission official misspoke in welcoming the guests to the ceremony, Ramaphosa retorted that he was “distinguished” and not yet “extinguished,” drawing a laugh from the politicians and media gathered.  On a more serious note, the president pledged that the ANC — which got 40 percent of the vote — would work with other parties to find “common ground” as coalition talks get underway.  The ANC has had a majority for 30 years, since the end of apartheid, so governing in a coalition marks unchartered territory. Under the law, parties now have two weeks to form a government — with South Africans on edge about what form that could take.  There are several main options, Melanie Verwoerd, a former ANC member of parliament and diplomat who’s now a political analyst, told VOA.  “There are a number of coalition options. ... The first one is obviously a coalition with, a formal coalition with, the Democratic Alliance and the IFP,” Verwoerd said.  The IFP is the Inkatha Freedom Party, a small opposition party popular with the Zulu people.  The Democratic Alliance is a centrist party and South Africa’s main opposition. It took 21 percent of the vote in the elections.   Big businesses and Western powers would favor a coalition with the DA, which observers say has a good track record in areas it's been in charge of locally.  However, it is led by a white man, John Steenhuisen, which is a huge optics problem for many in South Africa because of the country’s history, noted David Everatt, a professor at Johannesburg’s Wits School of Governance.  “We have to understand that to go into a coalition with the Democratic Alliance, which is the official opposition, is seen by some as a betrayal of the revolution,” Everatt said.  Former MP Verwoerd said those in the ANC who balk at a coalition with the DA have another option, involving the radical left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) or former President Jacob Zuma’s new uMkhonto weSizwe party, or MK.   “Then, of course, there is the more troubling one, which is an ANC-EFF coalition or an ANC-MK coalition, neither of which the ANC favors as a first option because it would affect the markets quite negatively and also [ANC is] very concerned about the stability of such a coalition,” Verwoerd said.  The populist MK party got the third highest number of votes, and was a game-changer in this election, despite Zuma having to resign in disgrace from the presidency in 2018 amid numerous corruption scandals.  Zuma is a sworn enemy of Ramaphosa, and the MK party has said they will not go into a coalition with what they call “the ANC of Ramaphosa.”  The EFF, led by firebrand politician Julius Malema, came fourth at the polls and wants expropriation without compensation of land, as well as nationalization of the mines and banks.  Steenhuisen on Sunday called the possibility of an ANC-EFF agreement a “doomsday coalition” and promised the DA would engage in talks to try and prevent it from happening.  On Tuesday, the ANC’s top brass is set to discuss coalitions. The party has publicly stated that Ramaphosa staying on as president is non-negotiable.

VOA Newscasts

Voice of America’s immigration news - June 3, 2024 - 17:00
Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Ukraine imposes emergency power shutdowns as Russia attacks energy grid

Voice of America’s immigration news - June 3, 2024 - 17:00
Ukraine imposed emergency power shutdowns in most of the country on Sunday, after Russia unleashed large-scale attacks on energy infrastructure and claimed it made gains in the eastern Donetsk province. The Netherlands will allow its soon to be delivered F-16 fighter jets to hit Russian targets. President Zelenskyy accuses China of pressuring countries not to attend upcoming peace talks on Ukraine. Right wing, populist parties are expected to surge in three-day EU parliamentary elections starting June 6th which analysts say could impact support for Ukraine’s war against Russia. And the story of a professional Ukrainian tennis player is voluntarily fighting for his country.

On Alaska’s remote southeast coastline, radio keeps communities connected

Voice of America’s immigration news - June 3, 2024 - 16:56
washington — In the remote and rural communities of southeastern Alaska, news is never in short supply thanks to a small but dedicated crew of journalists. “We are what we call community radio,” said Angela Denning. The radio journalist is the regional news director of the media nonprofit CoastAlaska and oversees six newsrooms. All of them, she said, are “pretty darn remote.” Just one person runs the newsroom in Wrangell — an island borough of little more than 2,000 people on the Alaska panhandle — while two people run the newsroom that Denning oversees in Petersburg, another panhandle town. “It has 3,300 people. It's on an island, so no roads in or out. We take planes, we take boats,” she told VOA. Denning says their audiences rely on stations like hers for news and natural disaster warnings. But radio also provides a human connection that is harder to achieve through websites. “It’s very personal,” said Denning, adding that listeners often tune in for updates on middle school basketball games, or just to hear the voices of their neighbors, friends or colleagues. That personal connection serves them well as CoastAlaska teams up with media nonprofits working to prevent the spread of disinformation. Communities where agriculture, logging or mining are the main industries are seeing a growth in misinformation and disinformation, media groups say. To stem that, organizations like the Rural News Network and the News Literacy Project work with affiliates, including CoastAlaska, to offer audiences the tools to spot and debunk false information. Local media are often on the front line of fighting disinformation, said Mike Webb, the News Literacy Project’s senior vice president of communications. As the U.S. prepares for elections, his nonpartisan group is helping newsrooms like Denning’s to equip audiences with the tools they need to spot misinformation. Ten years ago in Alaska, Denning said, misinformation and distrust in media were less of a worry. “Trust. It was something we took for granted,” she said. But now, “we don't assume there’s trust anymore. Quite the opposite.” To build and preserve trust, CoastAlaska works with its community to help audiences feel more involved. They have changed the formats of public forums to allow more engagement and to receive feedback from their audiences. For instance, when residents felt as if they didn’t have a voice in a local election, the journalists set up a way for audiences to ask questions at a borough assembly candidates forum. For the first half, the media asked questions. Then they let residents quiz the candidates. “We pulled their names out of the hat during the program so that those people would be able to ask the questions,” Denning said. And people had to ask their question to all the candidates, not just one. It was one way for some people who are suspicious of or don't have much trust in media outlets to feel like they were empowered and part of the process. “I think it kind of worked,” she said. “We got good feedback about it. But of course, we approached it very carefully.” Part of CoastAlaska’s success is its existing connections with the audience. “I think it works because we are covering community-based local events such as who's going to tell the community how the high school did at their basketball game over the weekend. That's us,” Denning said. In her region, the most engagement their reporting receives is often on the successes of students or community member profiles, Denning said. Though, she added, the reporters also cover issues like landslides, conflicts with the logging industry, and economic problems. "Our listeners and readers may not agree with everything we say but they also really appreciate the coverage that we give to the community, all those little things,” she said. Despite being largely isolated on islands in the state’s southeast, Denning’s reporters are always talking with each other. “If you're in constant contact with your colleagues, even if they're a few hundred miles away on a different island, you can still feel supported,” Denning said. “During this time of misinformation and distrust, that's more important than ever.”

On immigration reform, US has accomplished next to nothing in decades 

Voice of America’s immigration news - June 3, 2024 - 16:18
washington — Despite years of debate and numerous proposals, the United States has accomplished next to nothing on immigration reform. In recent years, attempts to modernize U.S. immigration law have been made through a series of legislative efforts; none has achieved a significant breakthrough. “We are nowhere and we’re not getting anywhere,” according to the Brookings Institution’s William Galston, a former Clinton White House aide for domestic policy. Border legislation Last October, Senate Republicans insisted additional aid for Ukraine must be tied to a bill addressing security at the U.S.-Mexico border. The border legislation, negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators, was rejected by most Senate Republicans and some Democrats in February when Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump objected to it. Shortly after the February vote, Senator Chris Murphy initiated talks with other senators to draft a bill that could receive sufficient bipartisan support, hoping to overcome opposition from both Democrats and Republicans. The resulting new bill, similar to the bill proposed in February, failed less than four days after it was introduced. Senate Democrats have repeatedly sought to add elements of immigration reform to spending bills. In each instance, the Senate parliamentarian ruled that immigration measures do not belong in spending bills, which can pass the chamber with a simple majority vote. Cornell University immigration law professor Stephen Yale-Loehr says immigration reform is dead for 2024. “For a variety of reasons,” he said, adding “immigration reform has always been hard to get through Congress. … Donald Trump wants to make immigration one of his key pillars of his campaign. So he basically killed the efforts in the Senate and the House earlier this year.” According to Yale-Loehr, the country will not have any possibility of immigration reform until 2025. “And even then, it will depend on who is the president and who controls the House and the Senate,” he said. Under the Trump administration, Republicans proposed immigration legislation focused on stricter enforcement and reducing legal immigration. One major proposal was the "RAISE Act," which aimed to cut legal immigration by half over 10 years. Another proposal was the "Secure and Succeed Act," which sought $25 billion for a border wall, increased border security and stricter visa controls. Both bills faced strong opposition and did not become law. These efforts, Galston said, were not comprehensive immigration reform. “Look, the last time we had serious immigration reform was in 1986. … The border bill that was worked out in the Senate [last year] was only a piece, an important piece, but still only a piece of a much larger picture,” he said. Galston said the country missed its best recent opportunity for immigration reform in 2013. The Senate proposed a comprehensive immigration reform bill known as the "Gang of Eight" bill, named after the bipartisan group of eight senators who crafted it. This proposal created a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the country, provided they met certain requirements such as paying fines and back taxes, learning English and passing background checks. The bill also sought to strengthen border security, enhance the E-Verify system employers use to check workers' immigration status and expand visa programs for high-skilled and agricultural workers. Despite passing the Senate with bipartisan support, the bill faced strong opposition in the House of Representatives, where many lawmakers argued that it did not do enough to secure the border and might encourage more illegal immigration. Critics were also concerned about the potential costs and the impact on American jobs. As a result, the House did not bring the bill to a vote, and the effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform stalled. “The fact of the matter is that things have changed fundamentally since the last bill, which was almost 40 years ago, so we are trying to do immigration policy in the mid-2020s on the basis of legislation that was enacted in the mid-1980s,” Galston said. In the '80s, he said, asylum requests were not nearly as significant as they are now. “It was not even close. And that’s just one example of changes in the situation on the ground that really do require legislative response,” he added. Yet Yale-Loehr does not see reforms happening anytime soon. “Because it's so complex," he said. "We have a broken immigration system. Courts have said that immigration law is as complex as our tax law. And just as it seems impossible for Congress to overhaul our tax system, I don't think any Congress is likely to be successful in trying to reform all of our broken immigration system. … But there are bits and pieces that Congress could pass as sort of a down payment.” Executive orders “All of the action on immigration coming out is coming out of the executive branch in the form of executive orders,” Galston said. Under the Trump administration, a number of significant changes were added to U.S. immigration policy, including restricting travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries; a "zero tolerance" policy for illegal border crossings, leading to the separation of thousands of children from their parents; and the effort to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Since taking office, President Joe Biden has signed several executive orders reversing Trump-era policies on immigration, including ending the travel bans, halting the construction of the border wall and preserving DACA, which protects undocumented immigrants brought to the country as minors. On his first day in office, Biden unveiled sweeping immigration reform legislation — the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, which included a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. The proposed bill did not go far in Congress.   Immigration and election Immigration is one of the top issues in this U.S. presidential election, according to a Gallup poll released in April. Republican voters are more likely than Democrats and independents to consider immigration the most important issue. In the latest poll, 48% of Republicans, 8% of Democrats, and 25% of independents said immigration was the most important problem facing the country. Ironically, the deadlock on immigration legislation has roots in the last major reform, Galston said. The Reagan-era legislation was a compromise between Democrats and Republicans aiming to provide legal protections to millions of undocumented migrants while focusing on curbing illegal immigration. And while it worked to help people gain legal status, Galston said, it failed to effectively address the latter. “And it was on that basis that immigration [reform] was defeated during the Bush administration. … And then again during the Obama administration in 2013, which really represented our best chance … it was a bill that did a lot of good things and it was very tough on the southern border,” he said.

VOA Newscasts

Voice of America’s immigration news - June 3, 2024 - 16:00
Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

VOA Newscasts

Voice of America’s immigration news - June 3, 2024 - 15:00
Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

A ceasefire proposal is on the table

Voice of America’s immigration news - June 3, 2024 - 14:35
President Biden is pushing a ceasefire plan in Israel and Gaza, but is it enough to bring the fighting to an end, and the hostages back home? Elections have wrapped up in India, Mexico and South Africa, and we get an update on the war from Kyiv. Plus, a look at a crisis of confidence in the institutions of American democracy.

Court acquits former Pakistani PM Khan of leaking state secrets

Voice of America’s immigration news - June 3, 2024 - 14:18
ISLAMABAD — The Islamabad High Court has overturned the conviction of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, in a case pertaining to mishandling state secrets.  In a short verbal statement witnessed by a VOA reporter Monday, two members of the high court announced the acquittals of Khan and Qureshi as it accepted their appeals against the convictions.  The decision in what is known as the “cipher case” comes after a special, lower court in January sentenced Khan and Qureshi to 10 years each in prison for making public the contents of a secret diplomatic cable sent by Pakistan’s then-ambassador to the United States.   The two men had argued the “sham case” was politically motivated and that the trial was conducted in an unfair manner.  Despite the high court’s order, Khan and Qureshi are not expected to walk free. Khan, imprisoned since last August, is serving time for a conviction for an illicit marriage.   Qureshi remains under arrest, facing a list of charges regarding violence that erupted in May of last year after Khan’s supporters stormed military and government installations to protest the former prime minister’s arrest.  Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, hailed Monday's verdict. Congratulating supporters on the much-needed legal relief, party leader Syed Zulfikar Bukhari said in a post on X that the state’s “malafide attempt to establish IK [Imran Khan] and SMQ [Shah Mahmood Qureshi] as traitors goes into the dustbin.”     In a hastily called press conference, the government’s spokesperson for legal affairs, Aqeel Malik, said the prosecution might appeal the decision in the country’s top court.  “If the prosecution feels that there was an error [in the judgment] or it should be challenged, it will decide whether to appeal [the verdict] in the Supreme Court,” Malik said.  The court should have considered the national security implications of its decision, he added.  The cipher was not presented in the court at any stage.  Case history  In April 2022, Khan was expelled from power in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence. He had served fewer than four years of a five-year term.  Since then, Khan has alleged that a secret diplomatic cable, or cipher, proves that Washington conspired with Pakistan's military and then-opposition leaders to remove him from office. The cable was sent by Asad Majeed Khan, then-Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S.  State authorities alleged Khan and his allies used the document for political purposes and that the former prime minister did not return the decoded copy of the classified diplomatic message to the foreign office.  The special court, established under the Official Secrets Act, tried Khan and Qureshi in prison and sentenced both to a decade behind bars on January 30, before Pakistan held national elections February 8.  Cipher contents  In August 2023, American news outlet The Intercept published what it said was the text of the cipher.  The cable described a March 7, 2022 meeting between then-Ambassador Khan and Donald Lu, assistant secretary of state at the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, in Washington.  According to the purported cable, State Department officials at the meeting encouraged the ambassador to tell Pakistan's powerful military that Islamabad could expect warmer relations if Khan were removed from office because of his neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Pakistani prime minister was in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 24, 2022, the day the invasion began, and did not condemn it.  "I think if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington because the Russia visit is being looked at as a decision by the Prime Minister. … Otherwise, I think it will be tough going ahead," the document quoted Lu as telling the Pakistani ambassador. While the State Department has consistently rejected the allegation of orchestrating Khan's ouster, the department's spokesperson, Mathew Miller, conceded last year that the Biden administration was unhappy with Khan's overtures to Russia. "We expressed concern privately to the government of Pakistan as we expressed concerns publicly about the visit of then-Prime Minister Khan to Moscow on the very day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. We made that concern quite clear," Miller said at a regular press conference while responding to a question about The Intercept's reporting. The Pakistani military and Khan's successors have also rejected his allegations.

Pages