https://arab.news/67bdk
- In prison, ex-PM Khan denies wrongdoing, accuses military of persecuting him
- Khan handed 10-year jail sentence Tuesday weeks ahead of Pakistani elections
Pakistan’s former prime minister and cricketer Imran Khan received a 10-year jail sentence on Tuesday for leaking state secrets in the harshest punishment of multiple cases he faces.
In prison since August, the 71-year-old denies wrongdoing and accuses the military of persecuting him.
Following are details of the main cases among 150 he says have been launched against him since being ousted in 2022.
SECRETS CASE
Khan is charged with making public a classified cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington in 2022. He denies the charge and has said the contents appeared in the media from other sources.
Khan has said the cable was proof of a conspiracy by the military and US government to topple his government in 2022 after he visited Moscow just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Washington and Pakistan’s military deny that.
GIFTS CASE
Khan was handed a three-year prison sentence in August for selling gifts worth more than 140 million rupees ($501,000) in state possession and received during his 2018-2022 premiership.
The sentence was later suspended but Khan remains behind bars in connection with other cases. He has said that he legally purchased the items. Government officials have alleged Khan’s aides sold the gifts in Dubai.
A list of these gifts shared by a former information minister included perfumes, diamond jewelry, dinner sets and seven watches, six of them Rolexes — the most expensive being a “Master Graff limited edition” valued at 85 million rupees ($304,000).
LAND BRIBERY CASE
Khan was previously arrested for four days in May last year on charges that he and his wife received land as a bribe through the Al-Qadir Trust — a charitable trust set up by Bushra Watto, Khan’s third wife, and Khan in 2018 when still in office.
Pakistani authorities have accused Khan and his wife of receiving the land, worth up to 7 billion rupees ($25 million), from a property developer charged in Britain with money laundering.
Authorities accused Khan of getting the land in exchange for a favor to the property developer by using 190 million pounds repatriated by Britain in the money laundering probe to pay fines levied by a court against the developer.
Khan’s aides have previously said that the land was donated to the trust for charitable purposes. The real estate developer has also denied any wrongdoing.