World

ISLAMABAD — Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan was sentenced on Wednesday to 14 years in jail on a graft charge, a day after he was given a 10-year prison term in verdicts handed down just a week before national elections.

Khan and his wife were found guilty of graft in a case involving gifts he received while premier, after he was Tuesday handed 10 years in a case related to leaking state secrets.

Pakistan goes to the polls next Thursday in a ballot already marred by allegations of rigging, with Khan barred from running and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Party subject to a massive crackdown.

"Another sad day in our judicial system history, which is being dismantled," a party spokesman told media.

It was not immediately clear if Khan's sentences were to run consecutively or concurrently following a trial held inside the jail where he has been detained for much of the time since his arrest in August.

But his lawyer, Salman Safdar, confirmed to AFP he had been sentenced alongside his wife, Bushra Bibi, who had been on remand throughout the trial.

Intazar Hussain Panjutha, one of Khan's legal team, said Bibi had surrendered herself to authorities.

Bibi, a faith healer who met Khan when he approached her for spiritual guidance, rarely appears in public and only wearing a face-covering hijab when she does.

The pair married in 2018, months before Khan was elected prime minister.

About 127 million Pakistanis are eligible to vote next Thursday, with Khan and his PTI at the centre of debate despite being squeezed out of the limelight.

On Tuesday a bomb blast claimed by the Islamic State group near a PTI rally killed four people and wounded six others in the Balochistan provincial capital of Quetta.

PTI said three of its activists had been killed in the blast, just hours after Khan was sentenced.

Buried by court cases 

Since being ousted in 2022, Khan has been buried by court cases he claims have been triggered to prevent his return to office after a campaign of defiance against Pakistan's military king makers.

The 71-year-old had accused the powerful military, with whom he ruled in partnership for much of his tenure, of orchestrating his ouster in a US-backed conspiracy.

When Khan was first arrested in May last year, riots broke out across the country.

But his street power was killed by a military crackdown that saw thousands of supporters detained, 100 of whom are facing closed-door military trials, and dozens of senior leaders forced underground.

“You have to take revenge for every injustice with your vote on February 8,” Khan said in a statement posted on his X profile reacting to his 10-year sentence on Tuesday.

“Tell them that we are not sheep that can be driven with a stick.”

As a result of the ongoing crackdown, PTI has moved most of its campaigning online, where it has been bogged down by state-imposed internet blackouts.

The party founded by former cricket star Khan has also been stripped of its cricket bat election symbol, in a nation where literacy lags, making icons vital for identifying candidates on ballot papers.

Nawaz Sharif, head of one of the two dynastic parties that have historically helmed Pakistan, has returned from self-imposed exile and seen his myriad convictions dissolve in the courts.

Analysts say it is a sign the three-time former prime minister is the favoured candidate of the military, which has directly ruled Pakistan for just under half its history.

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia and Ukraine traded hundreds of prisoners of war on Wednesday, just a week after Moscow said Kyiv had shot down a plane carrying captured Ukrainian soldiers to an exchange.

The crash of a Russian military cargo plane near the border with Ukraine, which Russia said killed 65 Ukrainian POWs, had thrown doubt on future prisoner swaps between the two sides.

But in a series of coordinated announcements Wednesday, both sides hailed the latest agreement to free more than 400 people captured during the course of the two-year war.

Russia's defence ministry said 195 of its soldiers were freed, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 207 people, both soldiers and civilians, had returned to Ukraine.

"Our people are back. 207 of them. We return them home no matter what," Zelensky said in a social media post.

Russia's defence ministry said "195 Russian servicemen... were returned home".

The exchange was brokered by the United Arab Emirates, which has played a role in several previous swaps, Moscow said.

Ukraine said the youngest soldier returning home was 20, while the oldest was 61.

The freed Ukrainians include those who fought in Mariupol and on Snake Island, a scrubby rock in the Black Sea that secured worldwide fame when the Ukrainians stationed there issued an expletive-laden radio message to Russian attackers.

50th swap 

The announcement of the swap, in a flurry of statements and photos released simultaneously by Moscow and Kyiv, contrasted sharply with the rhetoric surrounding last week's crash.

Zelensky has accused Moscow of “playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners” while Moscow says Ukraine committed a “terrorist act”.

Uncertainty remains after the Russian plane was crashed in a fireball in the western Belgorod region on January 24.

Moscow says it was ferrying 65 Ukrainian POWs on the way to a scheduled exchange.

President Vladimir Putin said it was “obvious” Ukraine shot it down and claimed Kyiv knew dozens of its soldiers could have been on board.

On Wednesday, he said a US Patriot system was used to down the plane.

“This has already been established by forensics,” Putin said in a televised appearance.

Ukraine has not outright denied Moscow’s version of events, but questioned whether captured Ukrainian soldiers were actually on board and said Moscow never told it in advance that POWs would be flown near the border.

Officials in Kyiv have called for Moscow to publish photos of the dead POWs’ bodies or provide other evidence to back up its claims.

Wednesday’s exchange, which took place exactly a week after the plane was shot down, was the 50th swap between the two sides since Russia invaded in February 2022, Kyiv said.

Ukraine said more than 3,000 POWs have now been returned. A similar number of Russians have also been freed, with most exchanges based on a one-for-one format.

Thousands who have been captured or surrendered throughout the near two-year war are thought to still be in captivity.

‘Not stopping’ 

On the battlefield, both sides reported ongoing fights for territory across the sprawling frontline.

Oleksandr Shtupun, a spokesman for Ukraine’s army, said Ukraine’s forces were “firmly on the defensive” in the eastern Donetsk region.

“The enemy does not stop trying to surround Avdiivka,” he said in an interview with state TV.

Russian forces have been trying to capture the strategic town, which Ukrainians see as a symbol of resistance, for months.

Ukraine also said Russia fired drones and missiles overnight in the latest aerial bombardment.

On the diplomatic front, Kyiv is hoping for a breakthrough this week over unlocking 50 billion euros ($54.2 billion) of aid from the EU.

EU leaders will meet on Thursday to discuss future support for Kyiv, hoping to reach a final agreement over a massive four-year financial aid package that was blocked by Hungary last year.

BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed on Wednesday to rally European partners to cobble together support for Ukraine “so huge” that it would weigh on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calculations.

The pledge by the German leader, once criticised for dragging his feet on arming Kyiv, came with fears growing that support from Ukraine’s biggest weapons supplier, the United States, could fall away.

“We will do everything to ensure that the joint contribution from Europe is so huge that Ukraine can build on it and that Putin would not be able to count on our support waning at some point,” he told the German parliament ahead of an EU summit aimed at shoring up military support for Kyiv.

In recent weeks, Scholz had ramped up calls for other EU nations to dig deeper for Ukraine.

In a letter published on Wednesday in The Financial Times, Scholz, along with four other European leaders, admitted that the bloc had fallen short of a pledge to supply a million artillery rounds by the end of March.

“But we can’t just give up on our promise,” wrote Scholz, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, the Czech Republic’s Petr Fiala, Estonia’s Kaja Kallas and The Netherlands’ Mark Rutte.

“We must renew our resolve and redouble our efforts in order to ensure that we sustain our support for as long as it takes,” they urged.

‘Life and death’ 

As orders placed now would only be delivered next year, the leaders underlined that it was crucial to find ways to accelerate the supplies of promised artillery rounds — through donation of existing stocks or joint procurement.

“The burden is so great that all states need to do everything they can to support Ukraine — it must continue to be a collective effort,” they wrote, underlining that it was a “question of life and death” for Ukrainian soldiers.

The call dovetailed with the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell’s demand on Wednesday for each of the 27 nations to lay out a detailed picture of the military support they are providing to Kyiv.

Accusations have been levelled that key EU economies such as France, Italy and Spain are not pulling their weight on arming Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Germany must use its economic clout to push others to chip in.

“Germany can manage to consolidate the EU,” he said in an interview with public broadcaster ARD on Sunday.

“Many countries have important economic relationships with Germany and their economy is dependent on Germany’s decisions because Germany has a strong economy,” he said.

Germany has become Ukraine’s second biggest armaments supplier after a sputtering start. Much of its contributions like Leopard tanks had been made only after public haranguing from other allies.

Even now, Scholz comes under fire for refusing to provide the long-range Taurus missiles sought by Kyiv.

Yet, Zelensky, asked if he was disappointed with Scholz over the refusal, hinted that the picture was more complex than that.

“It’s not just about Olaf — it concerns European leaders and the US,” he said, adding that he could not say more.

‘Hubris’ 

Some 50 billion euros ($54 billion) of funding for Ukraine was at stake at Thursday’s summit in Brussels, and Hungary has so far blocked the package.

The urgency for EU allies to step up for Kyiv has grown as assistance from the US is held up by domestic political squabbles.

President Joe Biden has made backing Ukraine a priority and US weapons and financial assistance have been crucial in helping the pro-Western country battle against a far larger attacking Russian force.

But Republicans have led a push to halt the effort, refusing to authorise new budget outlays unless Biden’s Democrats first agree to sweeping new measures against illegal migration.

With the United States in an election year that could again pit Biden against Donald Trump, Zelensky has warned that a Trump return to the White House would likely bring a “different policy” on the war.

For Scholz, it “would be hubris” to imagine that Germany could shoulder the weight alone without the United States.

“We are only a middle-sized power,” he said.

VIENNA — An unaccompanied minor refugee’s right to family reunification cannot be dependent on financial resources or curbed by reaching adulthood, the EU Court of Justice confirmed on Tuesday.

The ruling came after a Vienna court asked the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) to interpret the directive on the right to family reunification in relation to the case of an unaccompanied Syrian minor refugee.

After the minor obtained refugee status in Austria, his parents and seriously ill adult sister — who requires permanent care — sought family reunification by applying for residence permits.

The Austrian authorities rejected several applications for family reunification, stating that the young refugee was no longer a minor when the decision on the case was made.

They also found that the refugee and his parents did not have sufficient resources to provide for them and his sister’s care.

The family challenged the rejection before the Vienna Administrative Court, which subsequently asked the ECJ for clarification.

The ECJ ruled that the right to family reunification “cannot depend on how quickly or slowly the application for international protection is processed”.

It recalled its ruling in 2018 that an unaccompanied minor who reaches adulthood during the asylum procedure retains his or her right to family reunification, in accordance with a 2003 directive.

Furthermore, the right cannot be “subject to the condition that the minor refugee or his or her parents have accommodation, sickness insurance, as well as sufficient resources for them and the sister”, it found.

“It is practically impossible for an unaccompanied minor refugee to meet such conditions... likewise for the parents,” the ECJ ruled.

Due to the specific circumstances of the case, family reunification “must exceptionally extend” to the refugee’s adult sister in need of care. 

Denying her family reunification alongside her parents would essentially deprive the refugee of his right, the court said.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he had decided on a response to a deadly drone strike on US forces in an outpost in Jordan nearby the northeastern borders with Syria but said he did not seek a wider war in the Middle East.

Facing growing pressure in an election year, Biden said he held Iran responsible for supplying the weapons to the people who carried out the attack that killed three US troops.

Biden, who was hitting the campaign trail in Florida, has previously blamed Iran-backed militias for the first fatal attack on US troops in the region since the Israeli war on Gaza broke out in October.

"Yes," Biden told reporters at the White House when asked if he had decided on his response, but he did not give further details on what actions he would take.

"I don't think we need a wider war in the Middle East. That's not what I'm looking for," he added when asked about fears that taking on Iran could inflame a broader conflict.

Republicans have urged the 81-year-old Democrat to punish Iran for the drone strike on a US military facility near the Jordanian-Syrian border Sunday, with some urging direct strikes on Iran itself.

But Biden's administration believes hitting Iranian territory could cause the region to erupt, with strikes on Iranian-backed militias and possibly on Iranian Revolutionary Guard facilities in other countries more likely, US media reported.

The White House on Monday promised a "very consequential" response.

'Hold them responsible' 

Asked whether Iran was to blame for the attack on Jordan, Biden replied: "I do hold them responsible, in the sense that they're supplying the weapons to the people who did it."

Biden added that "we'll have that discussion" when asked if a direct link to Iran had been established.

Tensions have escalated sharply in the region following the Jordan attack, already unstable after the October 7 Hamas surprise attack on Israel and Israel’s devastating response in Gaza.

The Kremlin, a close ally of Tehran, on Tuesday called for a de-escalation in the Middle East.

“In our view, the overall level of tension is very alarming and, on the contrary, now is the time for steps to de-escalate tensions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow.

“This is the only thing that can help us prevent further spreading of the conflict, especially the Middle East conflict, and somehow achieve de-confliction and de-escalation.”

Tehran has said it had nothing to do with the attack and denied US accusations it supported extremist groups behind the strike near the borders with Iraq and Syria.

China also warned against a “cycle of retaliation” in the Middle East.

Beijing has close ties with both Russia and Iran, with all three seeking to challenge what they say is Washington’s global hegemony.