Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to a further 14 years in prison after being found guilty of corruption.
The already-imprisoned politician and his wife are accused of accepting a gift of land from a real estate tycoon in exchange for laundered money when Khan was in power.
Khan’s wife has also been sentenced to seven years in jail after being found guilty.
Prosecutors say the tycoon, Malik Riaz, was allowed by Khan to pay fines that were imposed on him in another case from the same laundered money of 190 million British pounds that was returned to Pakistan by British authorities in 2022 to deposit to the national exchequer.
Khan has denied wrongdoing and insisted since his arrest in 2023 that all the charges against him are a plot by rivals to keep him from returning to office.
Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in parliament in April 2022, had previously been convicted on charges of corruption, revealing official secrets and violating marriage laws in three separate verdicts and sentenced to 10, 14 and seven years respectively.
Under Pakistani law, he is to serve the terms concurrently – meaning, the length of the longest of the sentences.
The former cricket star enjoyed popular support when he became premier in 2018 but fell out with the king-making military establishment and was booted from power in a 2022 no-confidence vote.
He then waged a risky and unprecedented campaign of defiance against the top brass before swiftly becoming embroiled in a legal saga in which he has been accused of wrongdoing in around 200 cases.
Khan says the charges have been trumped up to prevent his comeback and his battle in the courts has become the nation’s defining political drama, spurring mass protests and unrest.
The 72-year-old’s sentencing on Friday is among his biggest setbacks since he was first jailed in August 2023. His wife and spiritual guide Bushra Bibi was convicted alongside him.
