A Pakistani accountability court on Saturday sentenced jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to 17 years imprisonment each in the Toshakhana 2 corruption case.
The case is about alleged fraud in state gifts, which the former first couple received from the Saudi government in 2021.
Special court judge Shahrukh Arjumand announced the judgment in the case in Rawalpindi’s high-security Adiala Jail.
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.
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.
In October 2024, Bushra was granted bail by the Islamabad High Court in this case, and a month later, Khan was also granted bail in the same case. They were indicted in December last year.
Meanwhile, the prosecution process went on in the Adiala Jail, where both Khan and his wife have already been incarcerated after conviction earlier this year in the Al-Qadir Trust case.
Both convicts can file appeals in the High Court against their convictions.
Source: NDTV
--Agencies
