Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan was sentenced on Friday (Jan 17) to 14 years in jail in the £190 million ($231 million) Al-Qadir trust graft case. Khan's wife, Bushra Bibi, was also sentenced to seven years in connection with the case, and was arrested outside the courtroom after her conviction.
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Prison time, fines, and a makeshift courtroom
The sentenced was announced in a makeshift courtroom at Adiala Jail, where Khan has been lodged for months, by Judge Nasir Javed Rana.
Along with the prison time, Khan and Bibi have also been ordered to pay fines amounting to PKR one million ($3592.3) and PKR 500,000 (1796.1) respectively.
In case they fail to pay the fine, Khan's sentence would be extended by six months, while his wife would have to serve an additional three months in jail.
The two were indicted in the case in February 2024, shortly after Pakistan's General Elections.
Imran Khan remains defiant
Following the conviction, Khan, in a statement to the press, vowed that he would not "make any deal" with authorities.
"I will neither make any deal nor seek any relief," he said.
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The founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party maintains that the cases were politically motivated and are a means to an end — keeping him from returning to power.
Khan also claimed that Bushra Bibi is a housewife who had nothing to do with the case and that she was given the sentence to hurt him.
Sentencing in the case has been delayed several times over the past month. This time as per an AFP report citing analysts, could have been used to pressure Khan into accepting a deal with the military to step back from politics.
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What is the Al-Qadir case?
Al-Qadir Trust case, also known as the £190 million National Crime Agency (NCA) scam centres around allegations of corruption and abuse of authority.
(With inputs from agencies)