Pak court gives 10-yr jail to Sharif in the first corruption case

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Pakistan on Friday sentenced ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif to 10 years in prison in one of the three corruption cases against him in the high-profile Panama Papers scandal.

The court delivered the verdict after postponing it four times in the Avenfield corruption case - on the ownership of four flats in the posh Avenfield House in London.

Sharif, 68, is in London attending to his wife Kulsoom Nawaz who was diagnosed with throat cancer last year.

Accountability court judge Mohammad Bashir pronounced the verdict behind closed doors.

Sharif was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the Avenfield properties case while his daughter Maryam was sentenced to seven years.

Nawaz’s son-in-law Capt (retd) Safdar was given a one year sentence.

While Sharif was fined 8 million pounds (USD 10 million), his daughter Maryam was handed down a 2 million pound (USD 2.6 million) fine.

The judgement runs in over 100 pages.

The ruling came weeks before the general elections in Pakistan on July 25.

Authorities had deployed a large number of security personnel in and around the Federal Judicial Complex, where the court is located. The roads leading to the complex have also been closed to the general traffic.