ACC challenges Tarique acquittal

Tarique Rahman. Star file photo

The Anti-Corruption Commission today appealed to the High Court challenging a lower court verdict that acquitted Tarique Rahman, the elder son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, in a money laundering case involving Tk 20.41 crore.

Giasuddin Al Mamun, a close friend to Tarique, was awarded seven years imprisonment and fined of Tk 40 crore in the case.

ACC counsel Khurshid Alam Khan submitted the 121-page appeal praying the High Court to convict Rahman, also BNP senior vice-chairman, in the case and scrap the verdict pronounced by the trial court on November 17.

The anti-graft body will move the appeal before the HC as early as possible, Khan told The Daily Star.

In October 2009, the ACC filed the case against Rahman 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 gruesome August 21 grenade attack cases, against Tarique.

He was arrested on March 7, 2007, during a crackdown on corruption by the military-backed caretaker government.

After securing a parole, he went to London in September 2008 for treatment, and later obtained bail in other cases as well.