Bangladesh
Corruption Case Tarique gets nine, Zubaida three years in prison in corruption case
Own Correspondent, Dhaka, 2 August 2023: The court has sentenced BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman to 9 years imprisonment in the case of concealment of wealth information and acquisition of wealth outside known income. At the same time Tarek's wife Dr. Zubaida Rahman was sentenced to three years imprisonment.
Judge Md. Asaduzzaman of the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Court announced the verdict on Wednesday. The court ordered Tarique Rahman's imprisonment for three years under Section 26(2) and six years under Section 27(1) of the ACC Act. The judge mentioned in the verdict that the two sentences will run together. According to Section 27(1) of the ACC Act, the court ordered Zubaida Rahman to be imprisoned for three years.
In addition to the prison sentence, Tarique Rahman was fined Tk 3 crore by the court. He will have to serve three more months in default of fine. On the other hand, Zubaida Rahman has been fined Tk 35 lakh in addition to the prison sentence, failing which she will have to serve one more month.
Along with this, the court has ordered the confiscation of Tk 2 crore 74 lakh 93 thousand 87 in favor of the state as the undisclosed assets of the couple.
Earlier, Tarique Rahman was sentenced to different terms of imprisonment in four separate cases. Several other cases are pending against him. However, pro-BNP lawyers said this is the first and only judgment in Zubaida's case.
In 2013, Tarique Rahman was first acquitted by the Dhaka court in the money laundering case. However, after the prosecution appealed against him, the High Court ordered seven years imprisonment.
Five years later, in February 2018, Tarique was sentenced to prison along with Khaleda Zia in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.
Khaleda was sentenced to five years in prison, Tarique was sentenced to 10 years. Later, on October 10, 2018, the court sentenced him to life imprisonment in the verdict of the August 1st grenade attack case. He was sentenced to life imprisonment three times, fined two lakh taka in each of the two cases of murder and explosives Act under several sections. He was also sentenced to 20 years imprisonment under another section of the Explosives Act. However, as all the sentences were mentioned to run concurrently, the judgment referred to life sentence for Tarique.
Last, on February 4, 2021, the court sentenced Tarique Rahman to two years' imprisonment in a defamation case filed in Narail on charges of making defamatory comments about Bangabandhu. He was also fined 10,000 taka, and sentenced to another six months in prison in default of payment.
