HC orders Tarique to surrender

The High Court today ordered BNP senior vice-chairman Tarique Rahman to surrender before a trial court following appeal by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) against his acquittal in a money laundering case.

The court however directed the lower court that deals with the money laundering case involving Tk 20.41 crore to grant Tarique, also the elder son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, bail after his surrender.

On November 17 last year, a Dhaka court acquitted Tarique in the money laundering case and sentenced his friend and business partner Giasuddin Al Mamun to seven years in prison and also fined him Tk 40 crore in the case.

The ACC on December 5 filed an appeal with the HC, challenging acquittal of Tarique in the case. Tarique is now undergoing treatment in London.

The HC bench of Justice Md Nizamul Haque and Justice Md Jahangir Hossain today asked Tarique to surrender before the trial court after holding hearing on the appeal.

The HC however did not mention any specific time for Tarique to surrender before the lower court, ACC counsel Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star after the order.

The HC also ordered the trial court to present the records and documents of the case before it as early as possible.

Khan submitted the 121-page appeal urging the HC to scrap the lower court judgment on Tarique.

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.

The charges were pressed in July 2010 and the trial began in September 2011.

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 in 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.