Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan has alleged that he could be assassinated through "slow poisoning" in jail as he was not willing to leave the South Asian Islamic state.
"They have already made two public attempts to take my life. Since I won't agree to leave my country there is of course a danger they will try to make another attempt on my life while I am in jail. Such an attempt could also be through slow poisoning," the incarcerated cricketer-turned-politician said in a message posted by his family on X.
Furthermore, Khan noted that all the cases filed against him or in which he has been convicted were "politically motivated".
"All the cases against me are completely bogus & politically motivated, concocted only to keep me in jail for certain till after the elections or maybe much longer beyond the elections," he added.
Khan's latest comments came hours after a local court in Pakistan rejected his bail plea and his appeal to dismiss the First Information Report (FIR) filed against him in the cipher case.
Interestingly, the 71-year-old politician was sentenced to three years in jail after his conviction in the Toshakhana case in August.
Subsequently, Khan's legal troubles mounted after a Pakistani court indicted him and Shah Mahmood Qureshi, his close confidant, who served as Pakistan's foreign minister during his premiership, in the cipher case.
State authorities claim that Khan leaked a secret diplomatic cable (cipher) shared by Pakistan's embassy in the US a month before he was removed from the country's top office last year.
Khan lost power in April 2022.