Former Pakistan PM Khan, wife handed 14 year prison sentences for corruption

Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was jailed for 14 years on Wednesday on corruption charges, the second lengthy prison term to which he has been sentenced in two days.

Khan's wife, Bushra Bibi, was also sentenced to 14 years in prison and the couple fined $5.3 million after being found guilty of retaining or buying and then reselling official state gifts to Pakistan from other countries for personal gain.

The 71-year-old founder of the populist Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party was also banned from holding political office for 10 years, a day after he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for leaking state secrets in a separate case.

The jail terms and bans all come days before a Feb. 8 general election in which he was already prohibited from taking part in what the PTI said was a two-day bonfire of every law in the land.

"Yet another kangaroo trial in which no right to defense was given to both [Khan and Bibi]," the party wrote on social media.

"What we have witnessed is the complete destruction of every existing law in Pakistan in two days."

Party spokesman Rauf Hasan called for calm, urging PTI supporters to instead show their disapproval at the ballot box next week.

"This is our message. Everyone be calm and go out and vote on Feb. 8. We are confident that we will get a three-fourths majority. Our focus is only on Feb. 8," he wrote in a post on X.

Wednesday's proceedings were the second sentencing in the controversial so-called Toshakhana case after Khan was jailed for three years in August on corruption charges related to profiting from gifts.

The latest prison term was handed down after prosecutors submitted new evidence Khan and Bibi allegedly failed to turn in a jewelry set from the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

Khan has faced an ever-growing list of legal problems ever since he was ousted as prime minister in a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly in April 2022 and six months later stripped of a parliamentary seat days after winning it, currently battling more than 100 charges.

He insists his troubles stem from his increasingly vocal criticism of political interference by the military which is framing him to prevent him from running for office.

The military is said to be backing three-time former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to win the upcoming election.

When Sharif attempted to tackle the power of the military in 1999 it mounted a coup, overthrew his government and imposed military rule. Sharif was jailed and eventually went into a seven-years exile in Saudi Arabia.

After winning a four-year term in 2013 Sharif was removed from office and again forced into exile over allegations of his family financial dealings in the leaked Panama Papers, only returning to Pakistan in October.