By Francesca Hangeior.
A Pakistani court on Friday convicted former Pakistan Prime Minister, Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi in a landmark graft case, sentencing Khan to 14 years in prison.
Khan, who has been held in custody since August 2023, was charged with around 200 cases but his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, claimed the latest conviction was being used to pressure him into silence.
“I will neither make any deal nor seek any relief,” Khan told reporters inside the courtroom after his conviction.
The anti-graft court convened in the jail near the capital Islamabad, where Khan is being held, and convicted him and his wife over a welfare foundation they established together, the Al-Qadir Trust.
“The prosecution has proven its case. Khan is convicted,” said Judge Nasir Rana, announcing a 14-year sentence for Khan and seven years for Bibi.
Khan maintains the cases are politically motivated and designed to keep him from returning to power.
The sentence has been delayed several times over the past month, with analysts saying the jail term was being used to pressure Khan into accepting a deal with the military to step back from politics.
Since being ousted from power in 2022, Khan has launched an unprecedented campaign in which he has openly criticised the country’s powerful generals.
He’s been previously handed four convictions, two of which have been overturned while the sentences in the other two cases were suspended. But, he remained in prison over pending cases.
Last year, a United Nations panel of experts found that Khan’s detention “had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office.”
Khan was barred from standing in February’s election and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party was hamstrung by a widespread crackdown.
PTI won more seats than any other party in the poll. Still, a coalition of parties considered more pliable to the influence of the military establishment shut them out of power.