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   Pakistan Court Sentences Absent Bhutto to Jail
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   Pakistan Court Sentences Absent Bhutto to Jail Jul 9, 12:55 pm ET

   ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - A Pakistani special court on Tuesday
   sentenced self-exiled former prime minister Benazir Bhutto to three
   years in prison for failing to appear before it to face a corruption
   charge, the official APP news agency said.

   It said the Accountability Court in Rawalpindi also ordered
   confiscation of Bhutto's "immovable property" -- a legal term for
   property such as land and houses.

   Legal sources said Bhutto, charged with receiving kickbacks for
   allowing monopoly import of gold by ARY Traders company in 1994 when
   she was prime minister, could appeal against the sentence before a
   provincial high court.

   Bhutto has lived abroad since early 1999 for fear of being arrested on
   allegations of corruption she denies.

   She was handed two prison sentences by the same Rawalpindi court last
   year for not appearing to face two other disputed corruption charges.

   Convictions by Accountability Courts, unless overturned by a higher
   court, automatically disqualify the convict from holding public
   office.

   Bhutto's latest conviction came three days after Pakistan's military
   ruler General Pervez Musharraf issued a decree effectively barring her
   and her one-time rival Nawaz Sharif from ever becoming prime minister
   again for having held the office twice.

   The decree was issued days after Musharraf proposed other
   constitutional changes that would give him sweeping powers to dictate
   the country's affairs.

   Bhutto and Sharif, who was toppled by Musharraf in an October 1999
   coup and sent to a 10-year exile to Saudi Arabia a year later, have
   between them spent short-lived terms as premiers twice each between
   1988 and 1999, and still command significant power bases in the
   country.

   Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Sharif's Pakistan Muslim
   League have since joined hands in the 15-party Alliance for the
   Restoration of Democracy to oppose military rule.

   Articles From Reuters