ISLAMABAD, Dec 20:
Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were sentenced to 17 years in jail each by a court on Saturday in the Toshakhana 2 corruption case.
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Khan, 73, who has been in jail since August 2023, faces multiple cases launched against him since his ouster from power in April 2022. The Toshakhana 2 case involves alleged fraud in state gifts that the former first couple received from the Saudi government in 2021.
Special court judge Shahrukh Arjumand announced the judgment in the case at Rawalpindi’s high-security Adiala Jail, where the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founder is currently being held.
Khan and Bushra were awarded 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust) of the Pakistan Penal Code and seven years under different sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The court also imposed a fine of PKR 16.4 million on each of them.
“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. It is in consideration of both said factors that a lenient view has been taken in awarding lesser punishment,” according to the judgment.
It added that the benefit of Section 382-B (period of detention to be considered while awarding sentence of imprisonment) of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) was “hereby given to the convicts”.
A total of 21 witnesses appeared before the court during the trial.
Khan and Bushra were present in the court when the judgment was announced.
Khan, in his recorded statement under Section 342 of the CrPC in the case, had rejected the allegations. He alleged that the case was “malicious, fabricated, and politically engineered”.
The case was filed in July 2024 and was based on allegations that valuable items, including expensive watches, as well as diamond and gold jewellery sets, were sold by the former couple without being deposited in the Toshakhana – the state gift repository. (PTI)
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