A Pakistani court has approved bail for former prime minister Imran Khan, who is detained in a case related to the illegal sale of state gifts, his party said on Wednesday.
Khan, a 71-year-old politician who has been detained since August 2023, is accused of inciting violence against the state, among other offences. It was unclear at the time of writing if Khan will be released.
“If an official order is given today, his family and supporters will contact the authorities to request his release,” Salman Safdar, a lawyer for one of the party’s lawyers, told reporters. Safdar added that as far as he knew, Khan had been granted bail or acquitted of all the cases he was facing. However, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, a member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, told Geo TV that Khan had not been granted bail in a case in which he was accused of plotting a riot by his supporters after his arrest in May last year.
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Khan denies any charges and has accused all the cases registered against him since he was ousted in 2022 of being politically motivated to keep him in jail.
The case, which was granted bail by the Islamabad High Court on Wednesday, is known as the Tosha Khana case, or state treasury case.
The case has multiple versions and charges relating to allegations that Khan and his wife illegally procured and sold gifts worth more than 140 million rupees ($501,000) in state possession that he received during his tenure as prime minister from 2018-22. Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were sentenced to 14 years in prison on the charges, following his three-year sentence in a similar case in late 2023.
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The couple’s sentences were suspended on appeal in the high court.
The gifts included diamond jewellery and seven watches, six of which were Rolexes, the most expensive of which was worth 85 million rupees ($305,000).
Khan’s wife was released last month after spending several months in the same jail as Khan.
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