Ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan and wife sentenced to 17 years in corruption case
Khan and his wife have denied accusations that they misrepresented the value of state gifts, including jewellery, and profited from them.
Pakistan’s former prime minister, Imran Khan, and his wife, Bushra Bibi, have been sentenced to 17 years in prison after a Pakistani court found them guilty of illegally retaining and selling valuable state gifts.
The sentence, handed down on Saturday, capped a years-long saga that saw the duo accused of selling various gifts – including jewellery from the Saudi Arabian government – at far below market value.
They have denied all charges.
In order to keep gifts from foreign dignitaries, Pakistani law requires officials to buy them at market value and to declare profits from any sales.
But prosecutors claimed that the couple profited from the items after buying them at an artificially low price of $10,000, compared with their market rate of $285,521.
Khan’s supporters were quick to denounce the ruling, with his spokesperson, Zulfikar Bukhari, saying that “criminal liability was imposed without proof of intent, gain, or loss, relying instead on a retrospective reinterpretation of rules”.
His party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, wrote on social media that the proceedings were a “sham”, and denounced the ruling as “a black chapter in history”.
It said Khan was present in the court when the judge announced the verdict in the Adiala prison in the city of Rawalpindi. But Khan’s family was not allowed access to the court, it said.
“A closed-door jail trial is neither free nor fair. It is, in fact, a military Trial.”
But Minister of Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar said that Khan and his wife were convicted and sentenced after the court examined solid evidence. He said the couple indulged in corruption, and “the court delivered a fair decision”.
Khan, 73, served as Pakistan’s prime minister from 2018 until April 2022, when he was removed in a no-confidence vote. He was imprisoned in August 2023 on various charges of corruption and revealing state secrets, all of which he has denied and claimed to be politically motivated.
He has been acquitted of some charges.
Khan’s main political rival, Shehbaz Sharif, is the country’s current prime minister. Since his ouster, Khan has repeatedly alleged that his removal was the result of a United States-backed conspiracy, carried out with the support of Pakistan’s powerful military. The claims have been denied by Washington, the military and his opponents.
An internationally famous cricket player in the heyday of his sporting career, Khan remains popular in Pakistan, with his imprisonment leading to protests throughout the last two years.
Aleema Khanum, the former prime minister’s sister, told Al Jazeera that the latest case against Khan was fabricated and was part of a broader effort to keep him out of power by his political opponents, whom she accused of “stealing the people’s mandate”.
“The whole country knows he’s an honest man,” she said. “He is isolated; he is being tortured through solitary confinement – him and his wife. This is the situation for two and a quarter months.”
“You think Imran is going to spend 10 years in jail for a necklace being underpriced. Seriously? That’s 17 years of conviction?” Khanum asked. “Of course, it is a fraudulent set-up. This is a collapsed judicial system.”
But Tania Bazai, a high court advocate in Pakistan, disputed the claim that the prosecution’s case is thin on evidence or politically motivated.
“The legal counsel of Imran Khan hasn’t provided a single document that can be in his defence. So saying this was a weak case on the prosecution’s side, no, it was a very strong case on the prosecution’s side,” said Bazai.
“One of the main witnesses was the principal secretary of Imran Khan, and the military secretary of Imran Khan at that time, who came with solid evidence. This entire case is based on documented evidence,” she added.
