The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday stayed the seven-year jail sentence of BNP Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman and businessman Gias Uddin Al Mamun in a case lodged over money laundering.
A four-member apex court bench, headed by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, passed the order granting a leave to appeal petition filed against the High Court judgment.
“The High Court convicted and sentenced him, whereas the lower court concerned had acquitted him in the case. We had filed the leave to appeal petition against the High Court judgment. Today the apex court granted that plea, staying the High Court judgment as well. The court asked both parties to submit the summaries of our plea by 31 December,” Tarique Rahman’s counsel Barrister Kaiser Kamal said.
The High Court on 21 July 2016 sentenced Tarique Rahman to seven years imprisonment and fined him Tk20 crore, scrapping his acquittal in the money laundering case.
A High Court bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Amir Hossain passed the order, repealing a lower court order that had acquitted the BNP leader in the case.
The court, however, upheld the lower court sentence of seven years’ imprisonment for Gias Uddin Al Mamun while commuting his fine of Tk40 crore to Tk20 crore.
According to the case document, ACC filed the case against Tarique and Mamun for taking more than Tk20 crore as a bribe and laundering it abroad.
Dhaka Third Special Judge Md Motahar Hossain on 17 November 2013, acquitted Tarique from the charges and sentenced Mamun to seven years’ imprisonment, and fined him Tk40 crore.
Leave a Reply