Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan, wife sentenced to 14 years in state gifts case

Verdict comes a day after another court convicted Khan of leaking state secrets and gave him a 10-year prison sentence.

Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi have been sentenced to 14 years in jail in a case related to the illegal selling of state gifts.

An accountability court in Rawalpindi, which deals with corruption cases, on Wednesday also ruled that the couple would be ineligible to contest for public office for 10 years while also slapping a fine of 757 million rupees ($2.7m).

The sentencing came a day after Khan was given a 10-year prison term for revealing state secrets. It was unclear whether the sentences were to run consecutively or concurrently.

Khan was handed a three-year prison sentence in August for selling gifts worth more than 140 million rupees ($501,000) he received when he was the prime minister from 2018 to April 2022.

Though Khan secured bail, he remained in jail facing trial in other cases.

The convictions against arguably Pakistan’s most popular politician came about a week before the general elections on February 8.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has already been stripped of its election symbol, with most of its candidates contesting as independents.

PTI official Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari said the sentencing of Khan was “yet another sad day in Pakistan’s judicial history” and questioned its legitimacy.

“Judiciary is being dismantled. A flawed decision meant to be suspended by the higher court, as witnesses clearly seemed compromised,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Star witnesses were changed … with no cross-questioning allowed, no final argument concluded, and the decision pops up like a predetermined process in play. This ridiculous decision will be challenged in superior courts.”