Pakistan’s former premier Imran Khan and his wife plead not guilty in another corruption case

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a graft case alleging they accepted a gift of land from a real estate tycoon in exchange for large sums of laundered money, officials said.

The case is the second to indict Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, over acts of corruption allegedly committed while the former cricket star turned Islamist politician was in office.

Prosecutors accuse the couple of using their family’s charity to set up a university on land gifted to them by tycoon Malik Riaz. In return, the businessman was allegedly given 190 million British pounds ($240 million) in laundered money that was returned to Pakistan by British authorities.

Khan, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote in parliament in April 2022, is currently serving multiple prison terms and has some 170 legal cases pending against him on charges ranging from corruption to inciting people to violence and terrorism. The couple earlier was convicted in a graft case on charges of selling state gifts while in office.

Khan has denied wrongdoing and insisted since his arrest last year that all the charges against him are a plot by rivals to keep him from returning to office.

He was barred from running in the Feb. 8 parliamentary elections in which his rivals from the Pakistan Muslim League party, or PML-N, emerged as the largest presence in the National Assembly, or lower house of the parliament. Khan’s rival, former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, is on track to form a coalition government when the parliament meets for its inaugural session.

Khan’s party on Tuesday announced nationwide protests on Saturday against alleged rigging in the election.

That came hours after Khan was