ISLAMABAD — A Pakistani court on Friday sentenced the country’s already imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife to 14 and seven years in prison after finding them guilty of corruption, officials and his lawyer said.
It is yet another blow to the prime minister who has been in prison since 2023.
The couple is accused of accepting a land offer in the housing crisis to recover money stolen during Khan’s reign.
Prosecutors said the businessman, Malik Riaz, was then allowed by Khan to pay a fine he had paid in another case from the same allocated sum of 190 million British pounds ($240 million) returned to Pakistan by British authorities in 2022 to deposit. to the national treasury.
Khan has denied any wrongdoing and has insisted since his arrest in 2023 that all the charges against him are a conspiracy by rivals to prevent him from returning to office.
Bibi was taken into custody by prison officials after the verdict was announced, according to officials. He had previously served a sentence in another fraud case and was released on bail by the court in October. She recently led a rally demanding her husband’s release.
Faisal Chaudhry, the defendant’s lawyer, said the court’s decision could be challenged in the higher courts.
Shortly after the verdict was announced, lawyers from Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, rallied outside parliament in the capital, Islamabad, saying the former prime minister had been unfairly punished.
“This is a bogus case, and we will go to the appeals court for this decision,” said Omar Ayub Khan, a senior party leader not related to the former prime minister.
Imran Khan, who was ousted by a vote of no confidence in parliament in April 2022, has been convicted of corruption, leaking official secrets and violating marriage laws in three separate verdicts and was sentenced to 10, 14 and seven years respectively. Under Pakistani law, he must serve the terms concurrently—that is, the length of the longest sentences.
Some of Khan’s followers were also present outside Adiala jail in Rawalpindi city, chanting anti-government slogans, demanding the release of their leader.
On Thursday, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told reporters in Islamabad that there was “irrefutable evidence” against Khan and his wife for “a huge scandal of corruption.” Tarar said Khan never told his Cabinet members about the money returned to Pakistan by Britain.
Tarar also said that Khan built a large house in the east of the city of Lahore after benefiting from a rich businessman, and that he could not prove that where he got the money to build it.
The latest development came a day after Khan’s PTI party held an important round of talks with representatives of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government demanding the release of all political prisoners, including Khan and other party leaders.
Sharif became prime minister following the February 2024 election, which the PTI says was rigged.
Source link
