Haji Selim at risk of losing parliament membership after High Court confirms sentence

Awami League leader Haji Mohammad Selim is at risk of losing his membership of parliament as the High Court has confirmed his 10 years in jail sentencing in a wealth case filed one and a half decades ago.

According to Article 66 of the constitution, a person shall be disqualified for election as, or for being, a member of parliament who has been, on conviction for a criminal offence involving moral turpitude, sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than two years, unless a period of five years has elapsed since his release.

“I think it is his (Haji Selim’s) moral turpitude. He has lost the right to continue as a member of parliament,” said Khurshid Alam Khan, counsel for the Anti-Corruption Commission, after the High Court gave the ruling on Tuesday.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury will have the final say on the issue. The ACC’s job is to send copies of the verdict to the authorities, he added.

Sayeed Ahmed Raza, the lawyer for the Dhaka-7 MP, believes his client’s membership of parliament will remain intact until the final disposal of the case. The defence will appeal against the ruling, he said. 

Asked what parliament will do about Selim now, Parliament Secretary Zafar Ahmed Khan said the speaker will take the decision on the issue once parliament receives a copy of the verdict and other relevant papers.

An official with the Parliament Secretariat said parliament needs a copy of an appeal against a verdict on an MP as well to take a decision. A copy of an order will also be needed if the verdict is stayed.

Parliament recently revoked the membership of Mohammad Shahid Islam alias Kazi Papul, who was elected from Lakshmipur-2 seat, after his jailing by a Kuwaiti court for four years for human trafficking and money laundering.

The ACC prosecuted Haji Selim during the military-backed caretaker government in October 2007 on charges of having wealth beyond means and concealing the information.

A special court in April 2008 sentenced him to total 13 years in jail -- 10 years on charges of achieving the wealth from unknown sources and three years for hiding the information.

It also sentenced his wife Gulshan Ara Begum to three years in prison on charges of abetting the crimes of her husband. 

After hearing Selim and Gulshan’s pleas against the verdict, the High Court acquitted them of the charges in January 2011.

The ACC then challenged the High Court judgment in the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division.

The top court in January 2015 scrapped the High Court verdict and ordered a rehearing on Selim’s appeal.

After the rehearing, the panel of Justice Md Moinul Haque Chowdhury and Justice AKM Zahirul Hoque on Tuesday upheld Selim’s 10-year jail sentence for having wealth beyond means, but acquitted him of the charges of hiding information.

The High Court dismissed the appeal of Haji Selim’s wife Gulshan Ara against her conviction by the lower court in the case as she died while the plea was being heard.

The MP from Dhaka-7, Haji Selim is a member of the advisory council of the Awami League’s Dhaka Metropolitan South Unit. He had worked as a joint general secretary of the undivided Dhaka Metropolitan Unit of the ruling party.

In 2014, he contested as an independent candidate for the seat and defeated the Awami League’s Mostofa Jalal Mohiuddin. Selim was reelected in 2018 on the Awami League ticket.

He made headlines recently over allegations of grabbing land illegally after his son Erfan Selim’s arrest following assault on a naval officer in October last year. A Rapid Action Battalion-run mobile court jailed Erfan for unlawful possession of walkie-talkies and liquor after a raid on their house in Old Dhaka.