Legal cases against Imran Khan and his wife
An accountability court on Friday sentenced former prime minister Imran Khan to 14 years imprisonment and his wife Bushra Bibi to seven years in a land corruption case, his legal team said.
The verdict in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case, the largest in terms of financial wrongdoing faced by Imran, was delivered by an anti-graft court in Adiala Jail in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where Imran has been jailed since August 2023.
Here are some of the allegations against the 72-year-old former cricket star, named in dozens of cases since he was ousted from office in 2022 that have kept him behind bars for more than a year.
Graft allegations
On Friday, Imran was convicted on charges that he and his wife were gifted land by real estate developer Malik Riaz during his premiership from 2018 to 2022 in exchange for illegal favours.
He was first arrested on May 9, 2023 in this case, on allegations that the couple received land worth up to Rs7 billion ($25.12m) as a bribe through the Al-Qadir University Trust created in 2018.
His party PTI has maintained that the land was donated for charitable purposes.
Bushra was taken into custody on Friday after being released on bail in October in another case.
State gifts
Imran was arrested on Aug 5, 2023 for allegedly selling Toshakhana (state) gifts worth more than Rs140m that he received during his premiership and which belonged in state possession.
Imran and Bushra were indicted on fresh charges in December after they were sentenced in two other versions of the case, although the sentences have been suspended. The couple has denied any wrongdoing.
Abetting May 9 violence
Imran faces anti-terrorism charges in connection with the violence that followed his arrest on May 9, 2023, regarding which several of his supporters have already been sentenced.
In December, he was indicted in a case concerning an attack during the protests on the army’s General Headquarters in Rawalpindi and is on trial.
State secrets
Imran was accused of making public a classified cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington in 2022, while he still held office.
He was acquitted in the case in June 2024.
Unlawful marriage
Imran and his wife were accused of breaking Islamic law by failing to observe the mandated waiting period between Bushra’s divorce from her previous husband and their marriage in 2018.
They were acquitted of the charges in July.
