Imran Khan, the ex-President of Pakistan, and his wife Bushra Bibi were found guilty of selling and keeping unwarranted gifts from the state and were given a 17-year prison sentence.
The sentence, which was delivered on Saturday, marked the conclusion of a years-long saga that saw the duo accused of selling various gifts, including jewelry from the Saudi Arabian government, for far below market value. They have refuted every charge.
Officials are required to purchase gifts from foreign dignitaries at market value and to report profits from any sales in Pakistani law.
However, according to the prosecution, the couple made money off of the items after purchasing them for an artificially low price of $10,000 in comparison to their current market rate of $ 285, 521.
Zulfikar Bukhari, the lawyer for Khan’s supporters, responded to the ruling by claiming that “criminal liability was imposed without proof of intent, gain, or loss, and relied instead on a retrospective reinterpretation of rules.”
His party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, criticized international media coverage of the case and wrote on social media that the proceedings were a “sham.”
The 73-year-old former leader was elected in a no-confidence vote in April 2022 after serving as prime minister of Pakistan from 2018 to 2022.
He has denied and asserted that his political motivations were any at any time after starting to imprison him in August 2023 on various charges of corruption and leaking state secrets. Some of his charges have been dropped.
Khan, a world-renowned cricket player at the height of his professional career, has been a popular in Pakistan despite protests for the past two years as a result of his imprisonment.
His sister, Uzma Khanum, earlier this month, reported to reporters that the former leader is now “kept inside every single day” and is currently imprisoned in a city of Rawalpindi.
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Source: Aljazeera
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