Nawaz Sharif sentenced to 7 years in prison by Pakistani court

Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was sentenced Monday for the second time this year in connection with corruption charges, but was acquitted in another case.

Sharif was sentenced to seven years by a Pakistan accountability court in a case involving Al-Azizia Steel Mills, Pakistan's Geo TV reported. He was acquitted in another trial involving Flagship Investment.

Earlier this year, Sharif was sentenced to 10 years in prison for a corruption scheme involving Avenfield luxury properties in Britain but the country's Supreme Court in Islamabad suspended his sentence in September after he served two months.

The Supreme Court ordered Sharif to step down from office last year after a government investigation into his family's wealth after the publication of the Panama Papers.

The Panama Papers is a reference to more than 11.5 million files leaked from the fourth largest offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca to a German newspaper in 2016. The documents revealed how the rich and some prominent politicians around the world exploited secretive offshore tax havens to hide their wealth.

Sharif had served as Pakistan's prime minister on three separate occasions, the latest from 2013 to 2017 when the current investigation into his finances drove him from power. His daughter, Maryam, who some believed was Sharif's heir apparent, had her seven-year prison sentence suspended in September, as well.

Sharif, his daughter and her husband Muhammad Safdar have been barred from Pakistani political activities for 10 years. Sharif's wife and former first lady Begum Kulsoom Nawaz died in September after fighting cancer.