Tarique to be brought back
Says law minister
Law Minister Anisul Huq yesterday said the trail court verdict, which acquitted BNP Senior Vice Chairperson Tarique Rahman in a graft case, was influenced. The high court overturned the trial court order acquitting Tarique and that proves the earlier verdict was wrong and influenced, the law minister observed at a press briefing at the secretariat.
Tarique got his acquittal influencing the trial court judge. Two days after pronouncing the judgement, the judge fled the country with his family for Malaysia and never returned. Weve suspended him. Proceedings are on against him, he said. The minister also said that the BNP senior vice-chairman cannot appeal against his conviction in the Tk. 20-crore graft case unless he surrenders before the trial court. He further said Tarique can file an appeal before the Appellate Division once he is arrested and brought back to the country, or he may surrender before the court.
But the BNP leader cannot appeal against the HC verdict sitting in London, he added.
He said that the government will take all legal steps to bring back Tarique Rahman from abroad. This will be done to execute the High Court (HC) verdict that sentenced him to seven-year jail in a money laundering case.
The government will seek the help of Interpol. After getting the certified copy of the full verdict, the home ministry will set in motion the process to arrest the fugitive and bring him back to the country, the law minister made the observations at a press briefing at the Secretariat after the HC verdict yesterday.
Talking to this correspondent, Anti-Corruption Commission lawyer Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan said the BNP leader could not contest parliamentary elections following the HC verdict. Tarique is disqualified from contesting elections under Article 66(2)(B) of the Constitution, he added.
The Article says: A person shall be disqualified for election as, for being, a member of Parliament who has been, on conviction for a criminal offence involving moral turpitude, sentenced to him imprisonment for a term of not less than two years, unless a period of five years has elapsed since his release.
Tarique has been handed seven-year imprisonment and Tk. 20 crore fine as the HC scrapped his acquittal in a case filed over siphoning off Tk. 20.41 crore overseas. For his friend and business partner, Giasuddin Al Mamun, the previous lower court verdict of seven years jail in this case has been upheld, but the fine has been reduced to Tk. 20 crore from Tk. 40 crore.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had filed the case against Tarique and Mamun in October 2009 for siphoning off the money to Singapore between 2003 and 2007.
