Full verdict on jail term for BNP leader Tarique for money laundering published

The High Court’s full verdict sentencing BNP leader Tarique Rahman and his friend and business associate Giasuddin Al Mamun each to seven years in jail and fines in a money laundering case has been published.

The 82-page judgment delivered on Jul 21 by the bench of justices M Enayetur Rahim and Amir Hossain was posted on the Supreme Court website on Monday.

The court had overturned a trial court’s verdict that acquitted Tarique and ordered seven years in prison for him and slapped a Tk 200 million fine.

It also upheld Mamun’s seven-year imprisonment and commuted his fine of Tk 400 million to Tk 200 million.

In November 2013, a Dhaka court had acquitted Tarique, the elder son of BNP chief Khaleda Zia, over charges brought against him for siphoning off Tk 204.1 million to Singapore between 2003 and 2007.

The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) had filed the case at Dhaka Cantonment Police Station against Tarique and Mamun in October 2009.

ACC’s lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan on Monday told bdnews24.com: “The High Court’s full verdict will now go to the lower court. The lower court will take steps following that.”

BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique, accused in dozens of cases in Bangladesh, has been living in the UK since 2008.

Mamun was arrested during the state of emergency in 2007 and is still behind bars. His elder brother former MP Hafiz Ibrahim is a member of the BNP’s Executive Committee.

Khaleda Zia’s youngest son Arafat Rahman Coco was also convicted in another money laundering case. Facing the jail term, Coco died in Malaysia last year while he was living there.

Claiming the High Court verdict has ‘fulfilled the government’s wishes’, the BNP’s Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said, “The government couldn’t stand his (Tarique Rahman’s) acquittal in the lower court.

“That’s why they had the ACC appeal to fulfil their wishes and exact their vengeance.”

On the other hand, happy with the verdict, Law Minister Anisul Huq said Tarique had managed to get acquitted in the case by ‘influencing the lower court judge’.