ACC to pray to HC for hearing appeal against Tarique's acquittal

The Anti-Corruption Commission will pray to the High Court so that it hears the appeal against the acquittal of BNP Senior Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman in a money laundering case as soon as the court starts functioning properly after the ongoing political shutdowns.
The commission could not file the prayer with the HC earlier, as its judges did not sit in courtrooms due to ongoing blockades and hartals enforced by the opposition political parties, ACC's counsel Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star on Sunday.
He said if the HC accepted the appeal, it would serve a notice on Tarique, also the elder son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, regarding this so that the defendant could place arguments through his lawyers. Then, it will open the hearing, he added.
The ACC submitted the appeal on December 5 last year urging the HC to scrap the judgment of a lower court which acquitted Tarique of the money laundering charge on November 17 the same year.
The Dhaka court, however, sentenced Tarique's business partner, Giasuddin Al Mamun, to seven years in prison and fined him Tk 40 crore in the same case.
In October 2009, the ACC had filed the case against Tarique and Mamun for laundering Tk 20.41 crore to Singapore between 2003 and 2007.
It was the first judgment in one of the 16 cases, including the August 21 grenade attack cases, against Tarique who was arrested on March 7, 2007, during a crackdown by the military-backed caretaker government.
After securing parole, he went to London in September 2008 for treatment, and later obtained bail in other cases as well.
The opposition alliance has been enforcing an indefinite blockade since January 1, while it extended its 48-hour hartal by 12 hours till 6:00pm on Wednesday.
The opposition, which boycotted the one-sided 10th national election, demands cancellation of the poll results and holding of a fresh election under a non-party caretaker government.