Court jails Hall-Mark Chairman Jasmine Islam for three years

A Dhaka court has sentenced Hall-Mark Group Chairman Jasmine Islam to three years in prison in a case started by the national anti-corruption agency five years ago for not declaring her assets.

On top of that, Judge Akhtaruzzaman of the Fifth Special Judge's Court on Wednesday fined her Tk 2 million, which she was ordered to pay it within seven days.

The time she already spent in jail will be deduced from her sentence, the judge said.

Jasmine, who has been in jail for 21 months in different cases over loan scam related to Hall-Mark, was in the court during the verdict.

She will challenge the judgment in the High Court, Shafiqul Islam, her lawyer, told the media.

The Tk 25 billion loan scam created an outcry when it was revealed that the Hall-Mark Group borrowed the money from state-owned Sonali Bank’s Ruposhi Bangla branch between 2010 and 2012.

The Anti-Corruption Commission started 11 cases over the scam in October 2012 after initial investigation.

Jasmine and her husband Hall-Mark Group Managing Director Tanvir Mahmud were accused in all the cases.

The ACC arrested Jasmine in 2016. She had also been arrested earlier in 2012.

She was in jail when the ACC sought her wealth statement in November, 2013.

The court granted her plea for more time to submit the wealth statement. As she missed the deadline, the ACC prosecuted her in December, 2013.

The lawyer for Jasmine argued that Tanvir, not Jasmine, is the owner of Hall-Mark and she was in jail when the ACC sent her the notice.

Jahangir Hossain, the lawyer for ACC, said the court recorded statements of six state witnesses and one of the defence before issuing the verdict.