The High Court has sentenced BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman to seven years of imprisonment and fined him Tk20 crore for money laundering.In the case, the court reinstated the punishment of seven-year imprisonment to Tarique's business partner Gias Uddin Al Mamun in line with reducing his fine to Tk20 crore from Tk40 crore slapped on him earlier. Tarique was acquitted in the case in 2013.The bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Amir Hossain delivered the verdict on Thursday.During the appeal hearing that began on May 25, there was no lawyer to represent Tarique, the son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, as he has been absconding.In October 2009, the Anti-Corruption Commission filed a case against Tarique and Gias for laundering money to Singapore between 2003 and 2007.On November 17, 2013, Dhaka's Third Special Judge's Court acquitted Tarique, who has been living in the UK for the last eight years, and sentenced Mamun to seven years’ imprisonment and also slapped him with a Tk40 crore fine.Also read: Tarique acquitted in money laundering caseThe ACC filed an appeal against Tarique’s acquittal, while Gias – who is currently in jail – filed a petition against his conviction on December 5.On January 19, 2014, the High Court asked Tarique to surrender before the trial court but he did not respond.The High Court on January 20 and 21 published notices in newspapers asking him to surrender while the trial court sent summons to Tarique’s Dhaka and London addresses.The ACC also launched an inquiryagainst the trial court judge who acquitted Tarique.Mamun was found guilty of siphoning off $75,000 deposited by a person named Khadiza Islam to a Citibank NA account in Singapore. He also deposited money extracted illegally from others to the account.According to the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act 1974, it is illegal to open and deposit money to a foreign bank account without the consent of Bangladesh Bank.Tarique withdrew $50,000 from Mamun’s Citibank NA account, using a supplementary credit card on different dates and spent the money for his treatment and shopping in Singapore between 2003 and 2006, according to the case statement.The trial court said Tarique was acquitted from the money laundering charges because he had mentioned the amount in his wealth statement submitted to the ACC.
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