A Pakistani court on Friday 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 with the national exchequer.

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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.

According to Khan’s legal team, Khan laughed and his wife, Bushra Bibi, smiled when judge Nasir Javed read the verdict.

Later, Khan and Bibi were taken into custody by prison officials after the announcement of the verdict, according to officials. She had earlier served a prison sentence in another graft case until she was freed on bail by a court in October. She recently led a rally to demand her husband’s release.

Later, a post from Khan’s account on the X platform urged his supporters not to panic over the verdict, under which the al-Qadir University built by his wife’s charity will also be taken over by authorities in the Punjab province.

“I will never accept this dictatorship and I will stay in the prison cell for as long as I have to in the struggle against this dictatorship, but I will not compromise on my principles and the struggle for the true freedom of the nation,” Khan wrote. Khan’s family has said such posts are shared with his consent.

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

Shortly after the announcement of the verdict, lawmakers from Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, party rallied outside the parliament in the capital, Islamabad, saying the former premier had been wrongly punished.

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Guards protecting a vehicle outside of a compound in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. (AP Photo/W.K. Yousufzai)

“This is a bogus case, and we will approach an appeals court against this decision,” said Omar Ayub Khan, a senior party leader who is not related to the former premier.

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.

Some of Khan’s supporters were also present outside the Adiala prison in the city of Rawalpindi, and they chanted slogans against the government, demanding the release of their leader.

On Thursday, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told reporters in Islamabad that there was “irrefutable evidence” against Khan and his wife in the “mega corruption scandal.” Tarar said that Khan even did not tell his own Cabinet members about the money that was returned to Pakistan by Britain.

Tarar also claimed that Khan built a new sprawling house in the eastern city of Lahore after giving benefits to the business tycoon, and that he was unable to prove that from where he got the money from to build it.

The latest development came a day after Khan’s PTI party held a crucial round of talks with representatives of the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to demand the release of all political detainees, including Khan and other party leaders.

Sharif became prime minister following the February 2024 election, which PTI claims was rigged.

The legal battle between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively in the aftermath of “It Ends With Us” expanded its blast zone Thursday morning, with a new lawsuit by Baldoni including text messages between Lively and Baldoni, her co-star and director. In the texts, Lively seemingly alludes to Taylor Swift as “one of her dragons.” The superstar is a friend of Lively.

In the lawsuit, filed against Lively and her husband, actor-producer Ryan Reynolds, on Thursday morning, Baldoni alleges that the couple hijacked the film “It Ends With Us,” and sought to wreck his public reputation with false allegations of sexual harassment. Baldoni is seeking $400 million in damages. Swift is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, nor is her name mentioned in the filing beyond a reference to “Taylor” in a text message sent by Baldoni to Lively.

Swift’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In text messages between Baldoni and Lively that are included on pages 23-25 of the 179-page filing, Baldoni discusses a rooftop scene in the film that Lively had allegedly reworked in the script. Baldoni’s lawyers claim that their client “felt obliged to text Lively to say that he had liked her pages and hadn’t needed Reynolds and her megacelebrity friend to pressure him.”

The suit alleges that Lively, along with Reynolds, gradually asserted control over “It Ends With Us” during production, including the rooftop scene in which Lively and Baldoni’s characters first meet. According to the filing, Lively summoned Baldoni to her penthouse in New York, where Reynolds and a “megacelebrity friend” — who appears to be Swift — both praised Lively’s version of the scene.

“Also was working on rooftop scene today, I really love what you did. It really does hep a lot,” Baldoni wrote in the text message. “Makes it so much more fun and interesting. (And I would have felt that way without Ryan and Taylor) You really are a talent across the board. Really excited nd grateful to do this together.”

In a later text from Lively, according to the complaint, the star references Reynolds and another person (whose name is redacted) as being “absolute titans as writers and storytellers outside of their primary gig.” Lively continues, “They also know I’m not always as good at making sure I’m seen and utilized for fear of threatening egos, or fear of affecting the ease of the process. They don’t give a shit about that. And because of that, everyone listens to them with immense respect and enthusiasm. So I guess I have to stop worrying about people liking me.”

The lengthy message closes with Lively comparing herself to Khaleesi, the dragon-controlling queen played by Emilia Clarke on “Game of Thrones,” and alluded to powerful forces that she has in her corner. Lively wrote: “If you ever get around to watching Game of Thrones, you’ll appreciate that I’m Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have a few dragons. For better or worse, but usually for better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for. So really we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine. You will too, I can promise you.”

Baldoni’s complaint asserts that this was Lively’s way of exerting pressure on Baldoni.

“The message could not have been clearer,” the complaint states. “Baldoni was not just dealing with Lively. He was also facing Lively’s ‘dragons,’ two of the most influential and wealthy celebrities in the world, who were not afraid to make things very difficult for him.”

Lively filed her own lawsuit against Baldoni, producer Jamey Heath and publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel on Dec. 31, 10 days after an initial complaint against them with the California Civil Rights Department. The actor accused Baldoni and others of orchestrating a clandestine media smear campaign against her, in retaliation for her complaints about facing alleged sexual harassment on the set of the film. In response, Baldoni first sued the New York Times — which was the first outlet to report on Lively’s complaint — alleging that the paper had worked with Lively’s team, taking the text messages out of context in order to defame him. At the time, Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, promised that more lawsuits would follow.