Pakistan’s Sharif gets 10 years

Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison by a corruption court in Islamabad Friday, lawyers said, dealing a serious blow to his party’s troubled campaign ahead of July 25 elections.

“[Sharif] has been awarded 10 years imprisonment and an 8 million pound [$10 million] fine” over the purchase of high-end properties in London, defence lawyer Mohammad Aurangzeb told AFP.