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A Pakistani court on Friday sentenced Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to 10 years in prison for bribery related to the purchase by his family of upscale apartments in London, thus beating his party severely before the general elections of 25 July.
The guilty verdict in absentia against Sharif, 68, threatens to end the career of one of Pakistan's best-known politicians of the past four decades, a political survivor who has been prime minister three times.
Maryam, Sharif's daughter as her chosen political heir, was sentenced to seven years in prison and disqualified from contesting the elections. Maryam's husband and MP Muhammad Safdar were sentenced to one year's imprisonment.
"Today 's verdict shows that these apartments were purchased with bribery money," said prosecutor Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi. . The name of the building in London
Without setting a date, Sharif said that he would return to Pakistan from London where he took care of his wife, Kulsoom, who is being treated for cancer and is in a coma after suffering a heart attack last month
"As soon as she becomes aware, and I will talk to her, I will come back," Sharif told the media in London. "I will continue my fight even in prison."
Sharif would be threatened with arrest upon his arrival in Pakistan just before the elections, during which his party is in a close race with the opposition party Imran Khan
His daughter Maryam, who is also currently in London, denied any wrongdoing and will appeal the decision, said Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, an ally of Sharif
"the Pakistani people and the PML-N reject this decision". as PML-N president after his brother was banned from holding his position for life. Shehbaz should be his first ministerial candidate.
"This decision is based on injustice."
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) court sentenced Sharif to a fine of 8 million pounds ($ 10.6 million) and a fine. 2 million pounds, while ordering the confiscation of London properties on behalf of the Pakistani government, Abbasi said.
If Sharif returns, he will be arrested upon his arrival under the law, but he could be released by a separate court. The NAB court accused Sharif and his family of money laundering and could not legitimately show the money trail for the purchase of several luxury properties in London, mainly in the mid – 1990s.
The verdict stated that the Sharif family had failed to prove a legal source of income for the purchase of Avenfield flats in 1993, 1995 and 1996.
JUSTICE "MASSACRED"
Sharif was ousted by the Supreme Court in July 2017 and barred from the policy to be "dishonest" by failing to report a monthly income of 10,000 Emirati Dirhams ($ 2,723) from a company owned by his son. He denies having received the monthly salary
but he kept de facto control of the party of the Pakistan Muslim-Nawaz League (PML-N) that he founded.
The decision comes at a time of growing suspicion of military interference in the country. Politics ahead of polls, as well as media complaints of being muzzled.
Sharif had denounced the lawsuits against him as being politically motivated and a witch hunt, often suggesting that the army was to blame.
"Safdar, Maryam's husband, said after the verdict:
The Pakistani army, which has ruled the country with nuclear weapons for nearly half of its history, denies any involvement in civil policy . But the army ended Sharif's second term in power in 1999.
COMFORT FOR KHAN?
Sharif has a history of conflict with the military, even though his political career was initially nurtured by military dictator Zia ul-Haq. He's scrambled with powerful generals once he came to power a decade later, and relations became difficult after he returned as prime minister in 2013, in part because he challenged the army on foreign policy.
Sharif argued that the military, in cahoots with the best judges, used cases against him and party members to tip the balance in favor of cricket-turned politician Imran Khan before the elections. operating on a socially conservative and anti-corruption platform. He denies complicity with the military and praises the disqualifications and prosecution of PML-N figures as a crackdown on corruption.
Khan was a driving force behind the fall of Sharif, seizing revelations from the 2016 Panama Papers that The Prime Minister's family had bought London apartments using offshore companies.
The Supreme Court agreed to investigate the finances of the Sharif family after Khan threatened to demonstrate. (person) was sentenced by the justice system in Pakistan, "said Khan at a rally after the verdict." Now the big looters will not come to power, but will go to jail. "
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