Khaleda jailed on corruption charges

BANGLADESH: Authorities jailed former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia on Monday in a corruption case involving container terminal contracts, the second former premier detained in the interim government’s crackdown on graft in Bangladeshi politics.

Police arrested Zia and her younger son, Arafat Rahman Coco, in the capital hours after an anti-corruption official filed a case against them, Dhaka Metropolitan Police official Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman told The Associated Press by phone.

A Dhaka court refused bail to Zia and sent her to jail pending trial, her lawyer Rafiqul Islam Miah told reporters at the court building. Coco was to remain in police custody for seven days while investigators question him, Miah said.

The military-backed interim government installed in January has vowed to root out corruption and clean up Bangladesh’s factional and often-violent politics before holding new elections, expected late next year.

Zia’s archrival - former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina - has been detained since July on extortion charges. The two women head the country’s two biggest parties and their supporters have frequently engaged in deadly street clashes, undermining the country’s stability.

Zia was led away from her home along with her son amid tight security early Monday, local television Channel I said. With her head covered in an off-white scarf, Zia later arrived at the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate building, where security officials took positions on nearby rooftops, TV channel CSB News said.

Zia, who ended her five-year term in October, allegedly misused her power as prime minister and awarded the contracts to a local company, Global Agro Trade Company, when she was in office in 2003. Coco allegedly influenced his mother to approve the deal, according to the case details.

Golam Shahriar Chowdhury, an official of the watchdog Anti-corruption Commission, filed the case overnight in Dhaka. The charges involve two cargo terminals, one in Dhaka’s Kamlapur Railway Station and another in the country’s main Chittagong seaport.

The government in March arrested Zia’s elder son, Tarique Rahman, on charges of extortion. Rahman, a senior leader of Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party, is now in jail awaiting trial.

Hasina, who headed the government in 1996-2001, has been in jail awaiting trial since July 16 on three charges of extortion.

Meanwhile, a new case was filed late Sunday against Hasina on charges of taking bribes in return for allowing a company to build a power plant when she was in power in 1997, a police official said.

She allegedly took 30 million takas (US$435,000) from the Khulna Power Company Ltd. to approve the project, Dhaka Metropolitan Police official Jane Alam told reporters.

Dhaka Monday, AP