Mamun gets 7yrs jail term for money laundering
A Dhaka court on Sunday acquitted BNP senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman, son of opposition leader Khaleda Zia, and sentenced his business partner, Giasuddin Al Mamun, to seven years of imprisonment in a high-profile money laundering case.
The court found Mamun guilty of siphoning off Tk. 20.41 crore to Singapore and also slapped a fine of Tk. 40 crore on him.
Tarique was charged with 16 cases, including money laundering and grenade attack on an Awami League rally, and this is the first judgment in one of those cases.
The BNP leader was shown fugitive in the case after he went to London in September 2008 for treatment. He, however, has secured bail in other cases.
Mohammad Motahar Hossain, judge of the Special Judge Court-3, delivered the verdict at 12.20 pm. The court said that Tarique had withdrawn USD 50,000 from the Citibank NA account of Mamun by using supplementary credit cards on different dates. The court also said that the BNP leader had spent the money for medical treatment and shopping in Singapore between 2003 and 2006. It also said that the amount had been mentioned in his wealth statement which he submitted to the ACC.
The judge said that Tarique was acquitted of the money laundering allegation as no evidence was found against him. The court said that Mamun had demanded more than Tk 20 crore from Khadiza Islam, proprietor of Nirman Constructions at Banani, in 2003, assuring her that she would get the work order for an 80-MW power plant in Tongi. He had taken Tk. 20.41 crore forcibly from Khadiza, the court added.
The court also said that after paying Mamun Tk. 5 lakh in Bangladesh, Khadiza had opened an account in the Citibank N.A. in Singapore as proposed by the convict and deposited USD 7.50 lakh there on different dates. Though Mamun had no consultancy firm, he claimed during the trial that he had received the money as consultancy charges. The court stated that he did not take the money with honest intent and the government was kept in the dark about the amount. Hence, Mamun has to pay Tk. 40 crore for his involvement in the crime, the court added.
Pointing out that the government had brought back Tk. 20.41 crore from Singapore on July 11, 2007, the court ordered the authorities to spend the money in development work.
Mamun was produced before the court on Sunday amid tight security at 10 am. Soon after the verdict, hundreds of pro-BNP lawyers brought out a procession on the court premises. Several BNP and Chhatra Dal activists also took part in the procession. The BNP supporters brought out similar processions in different parts of the country, including the Supreme Court premises. The pro-BNP lawyers chanted slogans against the attorney general, ACC lawyers as well as the government.
Meanwhile, senior pro-BNP lawyers expressed satisfaction after hearing the trial court verdict. Advocate Khandker Mahbub Hossain, chief defence counsel of the case, said, “The trial court has finally delivered justice.”
“The government has filed the case against Tarique with an ill-motive to harass him politically. The trial court’s verdict proved that the son of Khaleda Zia was not involved in any kind of money laundering,” he added.
Advocate Masud Ahmed Talukder, another lawyer for Tarique, said that the trial court’s verdict proved that “Tarique is innocent and so is Khaleda Zia”. He also said that a brave judge in an otherwise subservient judicial system has proved Tarique’s innocence. Replying to a query, Talukder said that Mamun would be freed soon as he had already served more than seven years in jail.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the verdict, advocate Anisul Huq, chief counsel of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), said that they would appeal against the verdict. “There is no way we can accept the verdict. After getting the verdict’s full copy, we would decide on filing an appeal against it,” he added.
Replying to a query, Huq said, “I still think that the charges against Tarique should have been proved based on our evidence.”
On October 26, 2009, ACC deputy director M Ibrahim had filed the case against former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s elder son Tarique and his business partner Giasuddin Al Mamun, with Cantonment Police Station under the Money Laundering Act, accusing them of siphoning off over Tk. 20.43 crore to Singapore.
M Ibrahim, investigating officer of the case, levelled charges against the duo on July 6, 2010. On August 8 the next year, the court issued an arrest warrant against Tarique.
The trial of the case began on September 11, 2011. On May 26 this year, the same court cleared the way for the ACC to seek Interpol assistance in arresting Tarique. Before closing the trial, the judge of the Special Judge’s Court-3 recorded the statements of 13 prosecution witnesses, including an FBI official and five defence witnesses.
-With The Independent input
