Former Prime Minister Imran Khan was sentenced to 14 years in prison in a land corruption case.
The verdict on the Al-qadir trust case was delivered by Judge Nasir Javed Rana at a makeshift courtroom in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, where Khan has been imprisoned since August 2023.
“I will neither make any deal nor seek any relief,” Khan told reporters at the courtroom after the verdict was delivered.
The court also sentenced Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi to seven years. She was out on bail, and has been taken into custody after the verdict.
“Whilst we wait for detailed decision, it’s important to note that, the Al Qadir Trust case against Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi lacks any solid foundation and is bound to collapse,” Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party’s foreign media wing said in a statement.
The former cricket player has previously been convicted on three separate charges of corruption, revealing official secrets and violating marriage laws to 10, 14 and seven years respectively. Pakistani law requires him to serve the sentences concurrently.
What is the case against them?
The couple are accused of accepting land as a gift from real estate businessman Malik Riaz in exchange for laundered money, when Khan serving as the premier of Pakistan.
Riaz then used the money to pay fines of £190 million ($240 million or €233 million), which were imposed on him in another case.
The money was returned by Britain to Pakistan in 2022 to deposit in the national treasury.
, 72, was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022.
He and his wife were formally charged in February 2024, soon after Pakistan’s general elections in which Khan’s PTI won the largest number of seats.
However, a coalition government led by current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif came into power.
Khan has denied the charges, and says he is being by his political rivals to keep him from contesting elections.
His supporters have been marching in violent since his arrest in May 2023.
tg/rmt (AFP, AP, Reuters)
The post Pakistan: Ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan convicted of graft appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
