Former Pakistan Prime minister, Nawaz Sharif has been
sentenced to 10 years in jail for corruption, while his daughter Maryam
Sharif has been given seven years.
The verdict was delivered by an accountability court in
Pakistan in one of the four cases of corruption against Nawaz Sharif -
the Avenfield corruption case, which is related to the ownership of four
flats in the posh Avenfield House in London.
"Nawaz Sharif has been awarded 10 years imprisonment" over
the purchase of high-end properties in London, defence lawyer Mohammad
Aurangzeb told news agency AFP.
Prosecution lawyer Sardar Muzaffar Abbas also said that the court had ordered the properties be confiscated.
Both Nawaz Sharif and Maryam are in London, attending to
the former PM's wife, Kulsoom Nawaz, who was diagnosed with throat
cancer last year and shifted to the UK for treatment. Since then, Maryam
and Nawaz Sharif have made several trips back and forth from London to
attend the hearings and attend to Kulsoom.
Nawaz Sharif wanted the announcement of the verdict delayed
by a week, but that request was dismissed by the court today. Mr Sharif
had said he wanted to hear the judgement of the case while standing in
the courtroom where he "endured more than 100 hearings" with his
daughter.
Nawaz Sharif and Maryam were also fined heavily by the
court. While Nawaz Sharif will have to pay $10 million, his daughter has
been fined $2.6 million.
The court judgement runs over 100 pages.
The Avenfield case was among the four corruption cases filed against the former PM and his children by the NAB on the Supreme Court's orders in the Panama Papers case which disqualified Nawaz Sharif.
The Avenfield case was among the four corruption cases filed against the former PM and his children by the NAB on the Supreme Court's orders in the Panama Papers case which disqualified Nawaz Sharif.
Nawaz Sharif, a three-time prime minister, resigned from
the post last year after Pakistan's Supreme Court disqualified him from
holding public office and ruled that graft cases be filed against him
and his children over the Panama Papers scandal.
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