An accountability court on Friday sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan to 14 years in prison and his wife Bushra Bibi to seven years in a land corruption case, his legal team said.
The verdict in the case, the largest in terms of financial irregularities Khan has faced, was delivered by an anti-corruption court in a prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where Khan has been imprisoned since August 2023.
These are some of the allegations against the 72-year-old former cricket star, mentioned in dozens of cases since he was removed from office in 2022 that have kept him behind bars for more than a year.
GRAFT ALLEGATIONS
On Friday, Khan was convicted on charges that a real estate developer gifted him and his wife land during his term from 2018 to 2022 in exchange for illegal favors.
He was first arrested in May 2023 in this case, on allegations that the couple received land worth up to 7 billion rupees ($25.12 million) as bribes through a trust created in 2018.
His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has maintained that the land was donated for charitable purposes.
Bibi was arrested on Friday after being released on bail in October in another case.
STATE GIFTS
Khan was arrested in August 2023 for allegedly selling gifts worth more than Rs 140 million that he received during his tenure as chief minister and that belonged to the state. Khan and Bibi were indicted on new charges in December after being sentenced in two other versions of the case, although the sentences have been suspended. The couple has denied any wrongdoing.
START VIOLENCE
Khan faces counterterrorism charges in connection with the violence that followed his arrest in May 2023, and for which several of his followers have already been convicted.
He was formally charged in December and is on trial.
STATE SECRETS
Khan was accused of making public a classified cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington in 2022, while he was still in office. He was acquitted of the case in June.
ILLEGAL MARRIAGE
Khan and his wife were accused of violating Islamic law by failing to respect the mandatory waiting period between Bibi’s divorce from her previous husband and her marriage in 2018. They were acquitted of the charges in July.
