A Pakistani anti-graft court jailed Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Khan, for 14 years each on charges of illegally selling state gifts, his party said yesterday, the third conviction for the embattled former prime minister in the past few months.
The verdict against Imran Khan also includes a 10-year disqualification from holding public office, his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said.
Bushra Khan, commonly known as Bushra Bibi, gave herself up for arrest shortly after the verdict, the party added.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The 14-year sentence is harsher than the 10-year sentence given to Imran Khan on Tuesday on charges of revealing state secrets, and just a week before national elections. It was not immediately clear if the two sentences for him would run concurrently.
“Another sad day in our judicial system history, which is being dismantled,” Imran Khan’s media team said, denying the charge that any illegal acts were committed.
“No cross questioning allowed, no final argument concluded and decision pops up like a predetermined process in play,” it said.
“This ridiculous decision will also be challenged,” it added.
Imran Khan and his wife are charged with illegally selling more than 140 million rupees (US$500,650) of gifts in state possession and received while he was prime minister from 2018 to 2022.
Government officials have said that Imran Khan’s aides sold the gifts in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
A list of these gifts shared by a former information minister included perfumes, diamond jewelry, dinner sets and seven watches, six of them Rolexes — the most expensive being a “Master Graff limited edition” valued at 85 million rupees.
He was also handed a three-year prison sentence in August last year for the same charge by another court, but that sentence had been suspended on appeal.
Yesterday’s verdict followed an investigation by the country’s top anti-graft body, the National Accountability Bureau, which had also charged his wife in the case.
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