“It is a different incident involving an adult in Pakistan."
A court has heard that MP Imran Ahmad Khan allegedly sexually assaulted a man in his sleep in Pakistan after a party where they were smoking marijuana and drinking whisky.
At the time of the alleged incident in November 2010, Khan had been working on a project funded by the Foreign Office.
Khan has been the Conservative MP for Wakefield since 2019.
He is currently on trial at Southwark Crown Court for allegedly sexually assaulting a teenage boy at a house in January 2008.
Khan denies the allegation “in the strongest terms”.
Prosecutor Sean Larkin QC said there was a different allegation against Khan.
He said: “It is a different incident involving an adult in Pakistan.”
The man, who was in his 20s at the time, said he and Khan had been at a party in Peshawar where everyone was drinking whisky.
Asked if he had been smoking marijuana, the witness said:
“I think generally at these types of events if it had been there both Imran and I would have had some.”
Gudrun Young QC, defending, suggested her client “did not like marijuana or the smell of it” but the man said:
“He has definitely smoked in front of me in the past.”
Prior to the alleged incident, the man said:
“There were definitely times when he got drunk after a few gin and tonics for example.”
He said Khan’s homosexuality was an “open secret” and the MP would sometimes act “quite flirtatiously” or “tickle” him.
They shared a guesthouse in the city and the man told the jury that Khan had offered him a sleeping pill.
He said: “Imran offered me a sleeping pill and we were staying in the same room, and for want of a good night’s sleep I didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.”
According to the man, he later woke up to find Khan performing a sex act on him, having pulled down his boxer shorts.
The man said:
“I pushed him off and told him to stop and said something along the lines of, ‘What the f*** are you doing?’”
The man reported the incident to the British High Commission and the Foreign Office but did not want to go to the Pakistani police because of Khan’s “powerful connections” in the military and government.
After hearing Khan had been charged with sexual assault, the man came forward as a witness.
Ms Young suggested that the man’s perception was affected by alcohol, cannabis and the sleeping pill.
She also implied that despite being heterosexual, the man consented to sexual activity with Khan.
Ms Young said: “I am not suggesting this incident did not happen, that Mr Khan did not give you oral sex.
“But I am suggesting that at the time at least that is something to which you were consenting.”
The witness replied: “I was not consenting. I was not gay and I have never experimented with being gay.”
The trial continues.
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