High Court says Tarique Rahman’s money laundering is financial crime

The High Court has described BNP leader Tarique Rahman’s siphoning off money outside the country as a 'financial crime.'

On Thursday, it overturned the trial court’s verdict that acquitted him from money laundering charges and sentenced him to seven years in prison.

The bench of justices M Enayetur Rahim and Amir Hossain also slapped a Tk 200 million fine on BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s son after hearing an appeal by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC).

In 2009, the ACC filed the case accusing Tarique and his business associate Giasuddin-Al-Mamun of siphoning off Tk 204.1 million to Singapore between 2003 and 2007.

Tarique Rahman

The trial court, however, found Mamun guilty and gave him a seven-year jail term. It had also fined him by Tk 400 million.

The High Court upheld Mamun’s sentence, but commuted the financial penalty to Tk 200 million.

“It’s a financial crime. Such money laundering using political connections hinders sustainable economic development of the country,” the court observed.

 In a reaction to the verdict, ACC counsel Khurshid Alam Khan said, “The court said that it’s now time to rethink these matters as power and money laundering is linked.”

He said the crime committed by Tarique and Mamun has been made possible by support from the ‘highest quarters of the State.’

The trial was conducted in absentia as Tarique, is in London and has not returned to Bangladesh since he left the country ostensibly for medical treatment.