Ex-PM Imran Khan sentenced to 14 years in graft case

Ex-PM Imran Khan sentenced to 14 years in graft case

ISLAMABAD
Ex-PM Imran Khan sentenced to 14 years in graft case

Supporters of Pakistan's jailed former prime minister Imran Khan hold his poster as they celebrate after he was aquitted of leaking state secrets following a court verdict in Karachi on June 3, 2024.

A Pakistani court on Jan. 17 sentenced the country’s already-imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife to 14 and seven years in jail after finding them guilty of corruption, officials and his lawyer said.

It's yet another blow for the former premier who has been behind the bars since 2023.

The couple are accused of accepting a gift of land from a real estate tycoon in exchange for laundered money when Khan was in power.

Prosecutors say the businessman, Malik Riaz, was then allowed by Khan to pay fines that were imposed on him in another case from the same laundered money of 190 million British pounds ($240 million) that was returned to Pakistan by British authorities in 2022 to deposit to the national exchequer.

Khan has denied wrongdoing and insisted since his arrest in 2023 that all the charges against him are a plot by rivals to keep him from returning to office.

Faisal Chaudhry, a defense lawyer, said the court verdict could be challenged in the superior courts.

Imran Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in parliament in April 2022, had previously been convicted on charges of corruption , revealing official secrets and violating marriage laws in three separate verdicts and sentenced to 10, 14 and seven years respectively. Under Pakistani law, he is to serve the terms concurrently — meaning, the length of the longest of the sentences.

Graft,