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Pakistan’s Imran Khan Handed 14 Years Jail Term in Land Graft Case

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan pauses as he speaks with Reuters during an interview, in Lahore, Pakistan March 17, 2023. (Reuters)
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan pauses as he speaks with Reuters during an interview, in Lahore, Pakistan March 17, 2023. (Reuters)
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Pakistan’s Imran Khan Handed 14 Years Jail Term in Land Graft Case

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan pauses as he speaks with Reuters during an interview, in Lahore, Pakistan March 17, 2023. (Reuters)
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan pauses as he speaks with Reuters during an interview, in Lahore, Pakistan March 17, 2023. (Reuters)

A Pakistani court sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan to 14 years imprisonment on Friday in a land corruption case, a setback to nascent talks between his party and the government aimed at cooling political instability in the south Asian nation.

The verdict in the case was delivered by an anti-graft court in a prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where Khan has been jailed since August 2023.

Khan's wife Bushra Bibi was also found guilty and sentenced to 7 years in prison. She was out on bail but was taken into custody after the judgment was pronounced, Geo News reported.

Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar told reporters that Khan's party could reach out to higher courts to appeal against the ruling, and that the former cricket star could also file a mercy petition to the president of Pakistan.

Omar Ayub, an aide of Khan, said the party will challenge the verdict in higher courts.

The former premier, 72, had been indicted on charges that he and his wife were gifted land by a real estate developer during his premiership from 2018 to 2022 in exchange for illegal favors.

Khan and Bibi had pleaded not guilty.

The case is linked to the Al-Qadir Trust, a non-government welfare body the couple set up when Khan was in office.

Prosecutors say the trust was a front for Khan to illegally receive land from a real estate developer. They said he was given 60 acres (24 hectares) near Islamabad and another large plot close to his hilltop mansion in the capital.

Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party says the land was not for personal gain and was for the spiritual and educational institution the former prime minister had set up.

"Whilst we wait for detailed decision, it's important to note that the Al Qadir Trust case against Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi lacks any solid foundation and is bound to collapse," PTI's foreign media wing said in a statement.

The announcement of the verdict was delayed three times, most recently on Monday, amid reconciliation talks between PTI and the government. The two sides have been at loggerheads since Khan was ousted from office in 2022.

The verdict is the biggest setback for Khan and his party since a surprisingly good showing in the 2024 general election when PTI's candidates - who were forced to contest as independents - won the most seats, but fell short of the majority needed to form a government.

Jailed since August 2023, Khan has been facing dozens of cases ranging from charges of graft and misuse of power, to inciting violence against the state after being removed from office in a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022.

He has either been acquitted or his sentences suspended in most cases, except for this one and another on charges of inciting supporters to rampage through military facilities to protest against his arrest on May 9, 2023.

His supporters have led several violent protest rallies since the May 9 incidents.

Khan's cases have been tried inside prison on security grounds.

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World

Starmer Rejects Calls to Resign Over Mandelson Appointment as Pressure Builds

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves after the multinational virtual summit and press conference at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris, Friday April 17, 2026 (Tom Nicholson/Pool Photo via AP)
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves after the multinational virtual summit and press conference at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris, Friday April 17, 2026 (Tom Nicholson/Pool Photo via AP)
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Starmer Rejects Calls to Resign Over Mandelson Appointment as Pressure Builds

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves after the multinational virtual summit and press conference at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris, Friday April 17, 2026 (Tom Nicholson/Pool Photo via AP)
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves after the multinational virtual summit and press conference at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris, Friday April 17, 2026 (Tom Nicholson/Pool Photo via AP)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday resisted demands he resign over revelations that his scandal-tainted pick for UK ambassador to Washington was appointed despite failing security checks.

Starmer says he was not informed that the Foreign Office had overruled the recommendation of security officials in early 2025 not to give Peter Mandelson the job. Many considered Mandelson a risky appointment because of his past friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and alleged business links to Russia and China.

Starmer said he was “absolutely furious” that he had been kept in the dark, calling it staggering” and “unforgivable.” He said he would “set out all the relevant facts in true transparency” to Parliament on Monday.

The top Foreign Office civil servant, Olly Robbins, took the fall for the decision and resigned.

The prime minister's job has been endangered by his fateful decision to appoint Mandelson, a trade expert and elder statesman of the governing Labour Party, as envoy to the Trump administration. It was a calculated risk that backfired spectacularly, and could bring down the prime minister.

Opposition politicians expressed disbelief that Starmer could have been unaware Mandelson had failed security vetting. Starmer said he only found out on Tuesday of this week.

Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, said Friday that “the recommendation was to not appoint Peter Mandelson to the role,” and that the Foreign Office ignored it. He said that was “astonishing,” but within the rules.

He said no government minister had been told of the security assessment. People familiar with the process said that is standard practice because of the sensitive personal information involved.

Jones said the checks, carried out by a department known as UK Security Vetting, “go through financial, personal, sexual, religious and other types of background information, and that is why it is kept extremely private on a portal that only a few people have access to.”

Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said claims the prime minister didn’t know were “completely preposterous.”

“This story does not stack up. The prime minister is taking us for fools,” she told the BBC. “All roads lead to a resignation.”

Ed Davey, the leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats, said Starmer “must go” if he misled Parliament and lied to the British public. The Lib Dems asked the prime minister's ethics adviser to investigate whether Starmer broke the government code of conduct by misleading Parliament.

Starmer has repeatedly insisted that “due process” was followed in the appointment, which was announced in December 2024. Mandelson took up the Washington post in February 2025, after undergoing security vetting.

Mandelson had known Epstein links

Mandelson’s expertise as a former European Union trade chief was considered a major asset in trying to persuade the Trump administration not to slap heavy tariffs on British goods, and seemed to pay off when the countries struck a trade deal in May 2025.

But documents released by the government in March, after being forced by Parliament, showed Starmer ignored red flags raised by his staff about the appointment. He was warned that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, exposed the government to “reputational risk.”

Starmer fired Mandelson in September 2025 after evidence emerged that he had lied about the extent of his links to Epstein.

The release of millions of pages of Epstein-related documents by the US Department of Justice in January reveled more and showed Mandelson’s relationship with the financier continued even after Epstein’s conviction in 2008 for sexual offenses involving a minor.

Emails suggested Mandelson had passed on sensitive, and potentially market-moving, government information to Epstein in 2009 after the global financial crisis.

British police subsequently launched a criminal probe. Mandelson was arrested on Feb. 23 on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

He has been released without bail conditions as the police investigation continues. Mandelson has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged. He does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.

King Charles III’s brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, is also under police investigation over his friendship with Epstein. He, too, has been arrested but not charged.

Starmer's recent setbacks

The prime minister has apologized to the British public and to Epstein’s victims for believing what he has termed “Mandelson’s lies.”

The Mandelson revelations are among a string of setbacks Starmer has faced since he led the Labour Party to a landslide election victory in July 2024. He has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living, and has been beset by missteps and U-turns.

The prime minister defused a potential crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers called for him to resign over the Mandelson appointment. But he could face a leadership challenge after local and regional elections on May 7, in which Labour is expected to do badly.

Despite his struggles on the homefront, Starmer has been praised for his work on the world stage. He has played a key role in maintaining European support for Ukraine and was in Paris on Friday to host a summit alongside French President Emmanuel Macron on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the oil shipping route choked off by the US-Israeli war on Iran.

World

Trump Says ‘No Sticking Points’ for Iran Deal

President Donald Trump arrives for a roundtable event about no tax on tips, Thursday, April 16, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP)
President Donald Trump arrives for a roundtable event about no tax on tips, Thursday, April 16, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP)
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Trump Says ‘No Sticking Points’ for Iran Deal

President Donald Trump arrives for a roundtable event about no tax on tips, Thursday, April 16, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP)
President Donald Trump arrives for a roundtable event about no tax on tips, Thursday, April 16, 2026, in Las Vegas. (AP)

US President Donald Trump told AFP on Friday there were "no sticking points" left for a peace deal with Iran, adding that an agreement was "very close."

Trump's comments came after a series of social media posts in which he touted progress on reopening the Strait of Hormuz and ending Iran's nuclear program.

"We're very close. Looks like it's going to be very good for everybody. And we're very close to having a deal," Trump said in a brief telephone call with AFP from Las Vegas.

"The strait's going to be open, they already are open. And things are going very well."

A first round of US-Iran talks in Pakistan last weekend ended without a peace deal, but Trump has said a second round could happen soon.

Trump has said the core US demand is that Iran should never be able to develop a nuclear weapon, and he said on Thursday that Iran had agreed to turn over its stock of enriched uranium.

Asked what the remaining sticking points for a deal were, Trump replied, "No sticking points at all."

When asked why he was unable to declare a deal at this point after his string of optimistic posts, Trump said he wanted an agreement on paper.

"I don't do that, I get it in writing," Trump added.

World

Spain’s Sanchez Says Venezuela’s Machado Declined to Meet Him

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Not Pictured) attend a press conference during the summit between Spain and Brazil in Barcelona, Spain, April 17, 2026. (Reuters)
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Not Pictured) attend a press conference during the summit between Spain and Brazil in Barcelona, Spain, April 17, 2026. (Reuters)
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Spain’s Sanchez Says Venezuela’s Machado Declined to Meet Him

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Not Pictured) attend a press conference during the summit between Spain and Brazil in Barcelona, Spain, April 17, 2026. (Reuters)
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Not Pictured) attend a press conference during the summit between Spain and Brazil in Barcelona, Spain, April 17, 2026. (Reuters)

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was offered a meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his government during her visit to Spain but she declined because she did not consider it "opportune", Sanchez said on Friday.

Machado's lack of contact with any members of Spain's leftist coalition government contrasts with her planned encounters with the country's right-wing opposition to Sanchez.

The prime minister said he was ‌nonetheless happy ‌to meet with the 2025 Nobel Peace ‌laureate ⁠whenever she wanted.

"Our ⁠doors are open to all (Venezuelan) opposition leaders," Sanchez said, underlining that many of them were living in exile in Spain.

Sanchez, speaking at a press conference alongside Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva after a bilateral meeting, said Venezuela's future needed to be ⁠democratically decided by its citizens without any foreign ‌interference.

Machado has held ‌talks with world leaders including US President Donald Trump and French ‌President Emmanuel Macron since leaving Venezuela, where she ‌had been in hiding.

She has been lobbying for the Venezuelan opposition to be given a role in determining the country's future after the US ousted longtime leader Nicolas Maduro ‌in January.

Earlier on Friday, Machado met with the leader of the conservative People's ⁠Party, Alberto ⁠Nunez Feijoo. Later in the day, she is set to hold a joint news conference with Santiago Abascal, head of far-right party Vox.

On Saturday, Machado will be welcomed by the regional leader of Madrid, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, one of Sanchez's fiercest critics.

Ayuso will bestow the region's gold medal on Machado, while Madrid's Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida - also of the PP - will hand her the keys to the city ahead of a rally with Venezuelan supporters.