Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan, pictured in 2021, and his wife have been sentenced to 17 years in prison for corruption. File Photo by Chamila Karunarathne/EPA-EFE
Dec. 20 (UPI) — The former prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, and his wife have been sentenced to 17 additional years in jail over charges of corruption and grifting.
Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, received the sentence in the Toshakhana-2 case, which charged them with fraud for intentionally undervaluing a Bulgari jewelry set that had been gifted to them by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmon in 2021, The BBC and Bloomberg reported.
The verdict, handed down late Friday during a hearing at the jail Khan is at, also includes a roughly $54,000 fine, is just the latest in a series of charges and trials he has faced since leaving office.
Khan and Bibi may be permitted to serve the new sentences concurrent to their previous sentences, according to reports.
“This court, while passing sentences, has considered the old age of Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi, as well as the fact that Bushra Imran Khan is a female,” Pakistani news organization Dawn reported Special Judge Central Shahrukh Arjumand said in a court order. “It is in considering of both said factors that a lenient view has been taken awarding a lesser punishment.”
Imran has been imprisoned since August 2023 on a 14-year sentence related to another corruption case, the same case that landed Bibi a seven-year jail sentence.
Khan also awaits trial on charges under Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Act because of riots in 2023 linked to his arrest for the litany of charges he faces, which include illegally receiving land worth $6.5 million and allegations that he “deliberately concealed” the details and value of gifts from foreign officials.
In Pakistan, politicians are required to return state gifts to the country’s treasury, but are permitted to buy them back. In the case of the Bulgari jewelry set, Khan and Bibi allegedly had the jewels undervalued to avoid paying what they are truly worth.
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