Imran Khan: Pakistan ex-Prime Minister and former cricketer jailed another 14 years, alongside wife, for leaking state secrets

Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife have been sentenced to 14 years in prison for corruption. The ruling on Wednesday (31 January) comes a day after another special court convicted Mr Khan for leaking state secrets and gave him a 10-year prison sentence.

Mr Khan and his wife are accused of retaining and selling state gifts when the former premier was in power. The court also disqualified Mr Khan fro years from holding any public office ahead of parliamentary elections on 8 February.

Mr Khan’s lawyer Babar Awan said the former prime minister was convicted and sentenced in such a hurry that the judge did not wait for the arrival of his legal team. He said Mr Khan’s basic human and fundamental rights had been violated and that the latest conviction and sentencing would be challenged in higher courts.

“It seems the judge was in a hurry to announce the verdict,” he said. Zulfiqar Bukhari, the chief spokesperson for Mr Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party also confirmed the conviction and sentencing.

The latest development came three weeks after the former cricketer and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were indicted on corruption charges for retaining state gifts including jewellery and watches from Saudi Arabia’s government, authorities said. The court order was another blow to Mr Khan. He and Mrs Bibi had pleaded not guilty when the charges were read out at a court at the prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi earlier this month.

Mr Khan briefly attended the court hearing when the judge announced the verdict. The former prime minister was ousted from power in a no-confidence vote in Parliament in April 2022. Despite his conviction and sentencing, he remains popular and is currently serving time on a corruption conviction and has multiple other legal cases hanging over him.

Mr Khan had blasted the court's decision that was made on Tuesday (30 January) describing the case against him as bogus. Mr Khan, a former international cricketer who was married to writer and socialite Jemima Goldsmith from 1995 to 2004, urged the public to "take revenge for every injustice with your vote on 8 February while remaining peaceful" in a statement released on his social media account on X, formerly known as Twitter. He said: "Tell them that we are not sheep that can be driven with a stick."