Imran Khan gets 14-year prison term

PAKISTAN. Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan, right, and Bushra Bibi,his wife, talk to the media before signing documents to submit surety bond over his bails in different cases, at an office of Lahore High Court in Lahore, Pakistan, on July 17, 2023.
PAKISTAN. Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan, right, and Bushra Bibi,his wife, talk to the media before signing documents to submit surety bond over his bails in different cases, at an office of Lahore High Court in Lahore, Pakistan, on July 17, 2023. AP

ISLAMABAD — Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife were sentenced on Wednesday to 14 years in prison for corruption, his lawyer and prison officials said, a day after another special court convicted Khan of leaking state secrets and gave him a 10-year prison sentence.

The latest conviction and sentencing were Khan's third since 2022, when he was ousted from power, and came ahead of Pakistan's Feb. 8 parliamentary elections. The sentences are concurrent.

Khan and his wife were accused in the most recent graft case of retaining and selling state gifts when he was in power.

The court also disqualified Khan for 10 years from holding any public office.

His lawyer Babar Awan said the former premier was convicted and sentenced in such a hurry that the judge did not wait for the arrival of his legal team.

He said Khan's basic human and fundamental rights had been violated, and that the latest legal setbacks would be challenged in higher courts.

"It seems the judge was in a hurry to announce the verdict," he said.

Zulfiqar Bukhari, the chief spokesperson for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, or PTI, also confirmed the conviction and sentencing.

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