Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was sentenced on Jan. 17 to 14 years imprisonment after being convicted of corruption by a Pakistani court. Khan, who has been in jail since 2023, has denied the charges, insisting that they are intended to keep him from returning to office.
The case involve allegations that Khan accepted gifts of land, which in fact were to be used to establish a university and not for personal gain, from Pakistani businessman Malik Riaz; in return Riaz was allegedly allowed by Khan to pay fines that were imposed on him in another case out of a sum of money, £190 million ($240 million), that was returned to Pakistan by British authorities in 2019, to be deposited into the national exchequer. While Khan is in jail, Malik Riaz remains free and uncharged.
Defense lawyer Faisal Chaudhry said the court verdict could be challenged in the superior courts.
Even Pakistan’s leading daily, The Dawn, expressed doubts about the legality of the conviction, writing in an Jan. 18 editorial, that the way the “case was conducted, and the delays in pronouncing the verdict have cast a shadow over it, and one wonders whether the matter is as closed as the PTI’s (Khan’s political party) critics would have one believe.”
