ISLAMABAD – Pakistan’s former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison by a corruption court in Islamabad Friday, lawyers said, dealing a serious blow to his party’s troubled campaign ahead of July 25 elections.

“(Sharif) has been awarded 10 years imprisonment and an eight million pound ($10 million) fine” over the purchase of high-end properties in London, defence lawyer Mohammad Aurangzeb told AFP. Prosecution lawyer Sardar Muzaffar Abbas also said that the court had ordered the properties be confiscated.