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Former Pakistani PM Imran Khan gets 14-year sentence on corruption charges

Former Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks during the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Trade and Investment Conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on February 24, 2021. Khan was sentenced on Friday to 14 years in prison. File Photo by Chamila Karunarathne/EPA-EFE
Former Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks during the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Trade and Investment Conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on February 24, 2021. Khan was sentenced on Friday to 14 years in prison. File Photo by Chamila Karunarathne/EPA-EFE

Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Pakistan's anti-corruption court handed former Prime Minister Imran Khan a 14-year jail sentence in a land bribery case against him, his attorney said on Friday.

The case was one of the largest against the embattled, but still popular, former cricket star who has been in jail since 2023. Prosecutors had charged that Khan sought land in exchange for favors from real estate developer Malik Riaz Hussain.

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Prosecutors said the deals were made in connection with the Al Qadir Trust, which was a front company for the ex-prime minister, and his wife Bushra Bibi.

Bibi, who had led large rallies demanding that her husband be freed, was taken into custody Friday shortly after the verdict, where she was also convicted of land corruption.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party, of PTI, had long charged that the land was purchased for a spiritual educational institute and was not connected with any individual personal gain.

PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan called the trial "politically motivated" and that Khan had "done no wrong."

"But [Imran Khan] will not give in," Ali Khan said, according to BBC News. "He will not break."

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Imran said after the verdict that he would "neither make any deal nor seek any relief."

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