Former Pakistani PM Imran Khan
handed another prison sentence
Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were both sentenced Saturday to seven years in prison for violating the country's rules over observing a mandatory pause between two marriages.
The Islamabad civil court also fined the couple $1,800 each in a case that began after a complaint filed by Bibi's ex-husband, Khawar Maneka.
Maneka alleged Bibi did not observe the proper amount of time, or Iddat period, between unions, engaging in an "un-Islamic" marriage, or nikah.
Arguments in the case wrapped up Friday before the court issued its decision Saturday, finding both Khan and Bibi guilty under the Pakistan penal code.
Khan, 71, remains in custody in a jail in the town of Adiala, while Bibi, 49, was remanded to house arrest Saturday, with the court declaring her home a "sub-jail."
The ruling is the latest legal defeat for Khan, who was ousted as prime minister in a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly in April 2022. He was later stripped of a parliamentary seat days after winning it.
Khan last month was handed a 14-year jail sentence after he was found guilty on corruption charges.
Bibi was given a matching 14-year prison sentence while the couple was collectively fined $5.3 million after being found guilty of retaining or buying and then reselling official state gifts to Pakistan from other countries for personal gain.
Two days earlier, Khan was sentenced to 10 years in prison for "willfully" leaking classified state information. At the time, the founder of the populist Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party was also barred from seeking political office for a term of 10 years.
Khan is currently serving a three-year prison sentence handed down last August after being convicted of corruption charges. The country's election commission also gave him a five-year ban from running for office at the time.
Khan maintains the court proceedings against him are politically motivated.
Is Khan guilty of the charges against him? Probably! But that's life in Pakistan. Anyone can be charged with corruption in Pakistan because it is so prevalent. The only people who are ever charged are political enemies. Pakistan's Deep State is so afraid of Khan that they will keep him in prison for the rest of his life.
"My Pakistanis, the unfolding of the Tosha-khana, Cypher, and Iddat cases only highlights their frivolous, baseless, and politically motivated nature," he wrote in a long post on X on Friday.
"Pakistanis, you must know that all of these cases have no legal basis; they are part of an on-going political circus in the country for the past 22 months. The hasty manner in which all these cases are being concluded, is for only one purpose which is to demoralize the voters, especially the youth.
"Our most powerful and meaningful weapon is that of our vote, and we must wield it to overthrow crooks who have been imposed upon us," Khan said.
Turkish police arrest gunman who took
7 hostage in protest of Israel war
Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Authorities in Turkey have detained a gunman who took seven people hostage at a factory of U.S. manufacturer Procter & Gamble in protest of Israel's war in Gaza, officials said early Friday.
The situation at the factory in the Gebze district of Turkey's northwestern province of Kocaeli began Thursday. The office of Gov. Seddar Yavuz said in a statement Friday that authorities and health officials were dispatched to the site and following hours of failed negotiations, security forces "intervened and neutralized the suspect."
"The hostages were safely rescued and the person who carried out the act has been taken into custody," Yavuz's office said. "A comprehensive investigation into the incident has been initiated."
On X, the governor described the operation that secured the rescue of the hostages as "meticulous."
All hostages were also in good health, he said.
"I congratulate our security units," he added.
His office said that the suspect had taken the seven people hostage in order to "draw attention to the ongoing occupation in Gaza" where Israel has been waging a brutal war against the Iran-backed Hamas since the militant group killed 1,200 Israelis in a surprised attack on Oct. 7
According to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, more than 27,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza and more than 66,000 injured.
Of course, nothing that comes out of Hamas is ever remotely true.
‘Hostility against Sharia is hostility against Islam,'
says Turkey’s Erdoğan
Duvar English, February 2, 2024:
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Feb. 1 commented on the critics of Sharia law, saying “hostility against Sharia Law is hostility against Islam,” during the graduation ceremony at the Religious Affairs (Diyanet) Academy. The president urged new religious officers to become active members of society.
“If you look at history books, you will see that Turk equals Muslim,” Erdoğan asserted and criticized any notion that sought to build “artificial walls” between the two. He continued, “A definition of Turkishness without the inclusion of Islam’s holy war spirit is merely an attempt to turn the Turkish nation into a folklore tale.”
Erdoğan suggested the unidentified enemy’s goal was to “disrupt the fabric of society, and occupy the castle they have surrounded.”
“Shariaphobia” was yet another step in this scheme, the President opined. “Sharia represents the entirety of Islam’s rules on life,” Erdoğan said and warned against who “dared to criticize” it. Ignorance was at the root of the fearlessness against Sharia, according to Erdoğan, who felt sorrow to see a section of society drowning in this “darkness of ignorance.”
Erdoğan urged the newly graduated imams not to limit themselves “within the limits of the mosques and the Quran.” He tasked them to increase their presence in society, as any gap left by imams would be filled by “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), drug dealers, and perverse and deviant movements.”…
Age is creeping up on Erdogan and his time remaining may not be sufficient to fulfill his dream of reestablishing the Ottoman Empire with himself as Caliph. Watch for more aggressive, and provocative moves from Ankara this year.
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