Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to 14 years in prison in a corruption case, the latest in a string of charges against him.
It is the longest valid prison sentence the cricket star-turned-politician has received, having been detained since August 2023.
He has been charged with more than 100 cases, ranging from leaking state secrets to selling state gifts – all of which he has denounced as politically motivated.
Pakistani authorities have described the latest case as the largest the country has ever seen, but the country has seen major financial frauds in the past, some of which have involved former leaders.
Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, are both accused of receiving a plot of land as a bribe from a real estate tycoon, the money of which the couple set up through the Al-Qadir Trust.
Instead, investigators said, Khan used 190 million pounds ($232 million) returned by the UK’s National Crime Agency to pay off the prince’s court fines.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party argued that the land had been donated to a trust for a spiritual education centre and was not used for Khan’s personal gain.
In a note to the Express Tribune, PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan said the former prime minister had “done nothing wrong” and that this was a “politically motivated unfair trial.”
“But [Imran Khan] will not surrender, he will not give up, he will not break,” he wrote.
Friday’s verdict comes after multiple delays as Khan’s party held talks with the government.
After his conviction on Friday, Khan told reporters in the courtroom that he “will not make any deals or expect any concessions.”
Khan’s 14-year sentence is the maximum possible in the case. He was also fined more than £4,000.
His wife was sentenced to seven years in prison and a fine of more than £2,000. Bibi, who has been on bail since last October, was arrested in court after her sentence was announced.
In 2023, Khan was sentenced to three years in prison for failing to declare money earned from selling gifts received while in office.
Last year, Khan was sentenced to 14 years in prison for selling state gifts and another 10 years for revealing state secrets. Both sentences were suspended a few months later.
Despite being in prison and banned from holding public office, Khan remains a prominent figure in Pakistan’s political scene. In last year’s elections, candidates supported by Imran Khan won the most seats of any party.
Khan’s prosecution has sparked large-scale protests by his supporters, which have been suppressed by the authorities. Thousands of protesters have been arrested and many have been injured in clashes with police.
