Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi have been sentenced to new prison terms following a fraud case involving state gifts.
They were found guilty of breaking Pakistani gift rules after Bibi was presented with a luxury jewelry set by Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia during a 2021 state visit.
Both men are already serving prison time for previous convictions, and the new sentences – 10 years for criminal breach of trust and seven years for criminal misconduct, plus a fine – would run concurrently with their previous sentences.
Khan has described the charges as politically motivated and his lawyer told BBC News his team plans to challenge the verdict.
Speaking to the BBC after the sentencing, the former prime minister’s lawyer Salman Safdar said Khan and his wife were not present at the hearing.
Mr Safdar said his legal team was not informed of the conviction until late Friday evening, after normal court hours.
They planned to challenge the verdict in the High Court, Mr Safdar said.
The case is the latest in a series of charges against the cricket star-turned-politician, who has been detained since August 2023. In January, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison in another corruption case.
He faced charges in more than 100 cases, ranging from leaking state secrets to selling state gifts. The BBC was unable to confirm the exact number of people held against him.
The jewelry box, called Toshakhana 2 in Pakistan, relates to a Bulgari jewelry set given to Bushra Bibi by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a state visit in 2021, according to court documents.
Under Pakistan’s state gifts rules, these items go to Pakistan’s Toshakana (state treasury) department, but politicians can redeem them.
Khan allegedly asked a private company to undervalue the jewelry set, before buying it back at a significantly reduced price.
In addition to their prison sentences, both men were fined more than 16 million Pakistani rupees (£42,600).
Khan was previously acquitted in another Toshakhana case.
The former leader still has other cases pending against him.
These include terrorism charges related to violent protests that took place on May 9, 2023, when he had already been arrested.
Khan served as Pakistan’s prime minister until April 2022, when he was ousted in a vote of no confidence.
Although he was not seen in public, his social media accounts continued to operate with posts attributed to him on X, often appearing after prison visits.
They have been highly critical of Pakistan’s current government and its politically powerful military leader, Field Marshal Asim Munir, including posts calling him a tyrannical dictator.
In November, he was refused any visits for almost a month.
After campaigning with his family and party, his sister was allowed to visit him in early December; hours after seeing it, his account posted a comment credited to Khan calling Field Marshal Asim Munir a “mentally unstable person”.
Since then, Khan has no longer been allowed any family visits.
According to a prison official, Khan and his wife were present when the verdict was announced, but no journalists were allowed to observe them.
The judgment said the judge was lenient in sentencing due to Khan’s “old age”.
