Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Zardari have been handed out a six-month suspended sentence and fined US $50,000 each in a graft case, their lawyer announced Tuesday.

"The Swiss Investigation Officer Devaud has on July 31 ... passed an order pronouncing six months of suspended sentence and a fine of 50,000 dollars each to Bhutto and Zardari," lawyer and senator Farooq Naek said in a statement in Islamabad.

Naek said the order, which was the outcome of a five-year inquiry into a corruption case, was communicated to the Swiss government on Monday.

Naek's statement came close on the heel's of the Swiss Supreme Court ruling on Monday that Switzerland can give Pakistan further legal help in a new anti-corruption case against Benazir.

The ruling clears the way for Swiss authorities to give Pakistan banking documents of 'off-shore' companies controlled or otherwise linked to Benazir and her family.

Switzerland previously gave Pakistan other documents for use in the prosecution of Benazir and her family.

The former prime minister has already been found guilty in two Pakistani trials, one in her absence.

Agencies