Bangladesh’s Exiled Appearing Opposition Chief Will get Jail Time period in Absentia for Graft

DHAKA (Reuters) – A Bangladesh courtroom on Wednesday sentenced the exiled performing chairman of the principle opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Celebration (BNP) and his spouse to jail in absentia after discovering them responsible of accumulating wealth past their declared earnings.

The sentences come amid giant BNP protest rallies, calling for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to step down and for the following election, due in January, to be held below a impartial caretaker authorities – a requirement her authorities has rejected.

Tarique Rahman was sentenced to 9 years in jail. He has additionally been fined 30 million taka ($274,200) within the case filed in 2007, Public Prosecutor Mosharrof Hossain instructed reporters after the decision and sentence have been introduced amid protests by pro-BNP legal professionals within the courtroom premises.

His spouse was sentenced to 3 years in jail. Bangladesh doesn’t have an extradition treaty with Britain, the place Rahman and his spouse have lived since 2008. However he might be jailed if he returns to Bangladesh.

The opposition has been in disarray since Rahman’s mom and occasion chief, former premier Khaleda Zia, was jailed on corruption prices in 2018, with Rahman attempting to run its marketing campaign from exile.

The BNP rejected Wednesday’s courtroom ruling, calling it a “dictated verdict by means of the so-called trial course of carried out as per a blueprint of the federal government”.

In 2016, Rahman was handed down a seven-year jail time period in a money-laundering case. He was additionally sentenced to jail in 2018 over a plot to assassinate Hasina in 2004 when she was within the opposition. He denies all prices in opposition to him.

Hasina, who has maintained tight management since coming to energy in 2009, has been accused of authoritarianism, human rights violations, cracking down on free speech and suppressing dissent whereas jailing her critics.

The USA and worldwide rights teams mentioned they have been involved about stories of intimidation and political violence throughout protests in Bangladesh over the weekend in opposition to Hasina.

(Reporting by Ruma Paul; Enhancing by Nick Macfie)

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