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Former Bangladesh PM to face graft charges
Mon, Jan 14, 2008 The Straits Times
DHAKA - A BANGLADESH court yesterday rejected a defence plea to dismiss graft charges against ex-premier Sheikh Hasina Wajed, accepting police testimony in the case as credible. A metropolitan sessions judge in Dhaka said police evidence presented in the past month provided enough grounds to continue the trial and formally indict her on corruption charges, state prosecutor Sharfuddin Mukul said. The judge then ordered the examination of prosecution witnesses to start on Thursday, Mr Mukul said. Sheikh Hasina, her cousin and former minister Sheikh Selim, and Sheikh Hasina's sister Sheikh Rehana are jointly accused of illegally taking 30 million taka (S$630,000) from a businessman when Sheikh Hasina was in power.

'The judge rejected the defence plea and said there is a prima facie (accepted) case and sufficient materials for framing the charges against her.

'Sheikh Hasina is now indicted on three charges of extortion,' Mr Mukul said.

Under the country's penal code, she faces a maximum 14 years in jail if convicted. Her trial will be concluded within the next two months as required under the country's emergency rules, he added.

Sheikh Hasina, the leader of the country's major Awami League party who ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, is one of 150 high-profile figures who have been arrested as part of the emergency government's crackdown on corruption.

She told the court that the case was 'false and baseless, and only aimed at destroying her political career', according to her lawyers and the state prosecutor.

'I haven't taken any money from anyone. The emergency government has filed the cases against me so that I cannot contest the elections. It is a conspiracy against me and my part,' she said.

Last week, Sheikh Hasina missed a court date due to illness and subsequently asked the government for permission to travel to the US for medical treatment.

The government has not yet responded.

Begum Khaleda Zia, the country's last elected premier, is also under detention on graft charges. She and Sheikh Hasina are bitter rivals, known as the 'Battling Begums', and they are blamed for 16 years of misrule and rampant corruption.

Bangladesh's military-backed government has launched a massive crackdown aimed at cleaning up the country's notoriously corrupt politics before holding fresh elections later this year.

The country has been under emergency rule since Jan 11 last year, when elections were cancelled after months of violence over vote-rigging allegations made by the Awami League against Begum Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

Meanwhile, the head of Bangladesh's army-backed interim government has renewed his pledge to hold a free and fair election before the end of the year to establish a credible democracy.

'There should be no doubt at all that we are fully committed to holding the election before the end of 2008 and leave the country to an honest, democratic government around this time next year,' Mr Fakhruddin Ahmed said on Saturday.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS