Court accepts case against Tarique, Giasuddin
A Dhaka court yesterday took into cognisance of the charges against BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman and his business partner Giasuddin Al Mamun in a money-laundering case.
The court also asked Tarique, elder son of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, to appear before it on May 19.
The hearing on charge framing will be held on the same day, the court said.
Judge Mohammad Zahurul Haque of the Senior Special Judge's Court passed the order after hearing arguments from Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and defence counsel barrister Rafique-Ul Huq.
Earlier the court rejected a defence petition for adjournment of deliberation on the charges against Tarique.
During the hearing, Rafique told the court that they had earlier filed a review petition with the Supreme Court (SC) against its earlier judgment.
In the judgment delivered on February 9 this year, the SC ruled that the proceedings of money laundering case against Tarique cannot run under the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2009, as the alleged offence took place before its enactment.
It, however, said the trial can proceed under the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2002, as the reported incident took place after its enactment.
The review petition is now pending hearing. So, the defence lawyers prayed for the adjournment until disposal of the review petition, Rafique said.
Opposing the defence plea, Mahbubey Alam said that there was no legal bar to taking into cognisance the charges against the accused as the defence lawyers could not obtain any stay order from the higher court.
On July 6 last year, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) pressed charges against the two for laundering Tk 20.41 crore in between 2003 and 2007.
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