Until Wednesday, BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman has been sentenced in absentia to different jail terms in four cases, including a life term for the August 21 grenade attack plot and 10 years for the Zia Orphanage Trust scandal.
A Dhaka court is set to deliver its verdict in a graft case against Tarique and his wife Dr Zubaida Rahman in the afternoon. The case was filed for amassing illegal wealth of Tk4.81 crore and concealing information about the asset. Both of them were tried in absentia.
This is the only case where Dr Zubaida is an accused. Her mother Iqbal Mand Banu was also charged, but the name was dropped after her death.
Section 26(2) of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2004 provides for aF maximum penalty of three years of imprisonment and Section 27(1) for a maximum penalty of 10 years. In that case, if the charges are proven, they can be jailed for a maximum of 13 years.
Several other cases are pending against him.
The accusations involve incidents from the 2001-06 period when his mother, party’s Chairperson Khaleda Zia, was serving her third term in office. He was arrested during a crackdown on corruption by the military-backed caretaker government in 2007. After securing bail from the High Court, he went to the UK on September 11, 2008, and has since been running the party from abroad.
The party claims the cases were filed to harass the BNP leader and that the trials are politically motivated.
Judgements in four cases
In 2013, a Dhaka court first acquitted Tarique in a money laundering case. Later, after the state's appeal, the High Court sentenced him to seven years in prison. Five years later, in February 2018, Khaleda Zia got five years and Tarique 10 years in jail in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.
On October 21, 2018, a special tribunal sentenced Tarique to life imprisonment for masterminding the grisly grenade attack on a rally of then-opposition leader Sheikh Hasina on August 21, 2004. He was given a life sentence three times and 20 years imprisonment under several sections of the two cases of murder and the Explosives Act.
On February 4, 2021, another court sentenced Tarique to two years imprisonment in a defamation case filed in Narail on charges of making ugly comments about the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He was also fined Tk10,000, and sentenced to another six months in prison in default of payment.
