Dhaka presses graft charges against Khaleda Zia’s son

DHAKA - Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has pressed money-laundering charges against opposition leader Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman and his business partner Giasuddin Al Mamun.

Rahman and Mamun siphoned Taka 204 million ($2.9 million) between 2003 and 2007, the ACC said in a chargesheet submitted Tuesday to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court here.

Living in London on health grounds, Rahman is Zia’s elder son and was made senior vice president of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) last year.

A BNP official termed the ACC charges “totally false” and claimed that it was meant to keep Rahman away from the political scene.

Tarique had taken the money in foreign currencies from different companies and organisations. In exchange, he had promised to win them contracts using his clout as son of then prime minister Khaleda Zia, said the chargesheet.

To conceal his identity while drawing the money, Tarique used a supplementary debit card issued against Mamun’s account with Citibank Singapore, the ACC alleged.

Tarique, his businessman-brother Arafat Rahman Koko and Zia were arrested on graft charges in 2007.

Rahman left for London and Koko for Singapore citing health grounds on the eve of the December 2008 parliamentary election that Hasina won and Zia lost.

While most cases against Hasina have been withdrawn, Zia and her sons stand accused in a number of cases.