Primarily based in London since 2008, Tarique Rahman was handed down a jail time period in 2018 for his function in a 2004 grenade assault when his mom was the prime minister
By:
Chandrashekar Bhat
BANGLADESH’S exiled opposition chief was sentenced in absentia to 9 years jail for corruption on Wednesday (2), attorneys stated, triggering protests from a whole bunch of supporters who known as the trial politically motivated.
Tarique Rahman, 55, appearing chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Celebration (BNP), was handed the nine-year sentence and his spouse, Zubaida, was given three years, Anti-Corruption Fee lawyer Khushid Alam Khan stated.
“He was sentenced to 9 years in jail for concealing earnings and accumulating wealth disproportionate to his earnings, and his spouse was sentenced to a few years in jail for abetting her husband,” Khan stated.
BNP lawyer Masud Ahmed Talukder known as the sentence “100 per cent politically motivated”, saying the case was meant to maintain Rahman “off from politics forward of the December-January basic election”.
The BNP and its allies have staged a collection of protests since final yr demanding prime minister Sheikh Hasina step down and permit a caretaker authorities to supervise the elections.
Round a thousand BNP supporters rallied outdoors celebration headquarters in Dhaka after the Rahmans’ sentencing, senior police official Rawshanul Huq Saikat stated.
Western governments have expressed concern over the political local weather in Bangladesh, the place the ruling celebration dominates the legislature and runs it just about as a rubber stamp.
Rahman, based mostly in London since 2008, had already been given a life sentence in 2018 for his function in a 2004 grenade assault that killed greater than 20 folks throughout a political rally for then-opposition chief Hasina. Rahman’s mom Khaleda Zia was the prime minister on the time.
Zia is below efficient home arrest after she was sentenced to 17 years in jail in two separate graft circumstances in 2018.
Rahman has been main the celebration from Britain in her absence.
Zubaida, a physician, is just not concerned in politics and has not been sentenced earlier than, with the conviction successfully stopping her return residence and making her ineligible to face within the polls.
(AFP)
