Bangladesh seeks arrest of Transparency International leaders

DHAKA - A Bangladeshi court Sunday issued an arrest warrant for the leaders of the national chapter of corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI), accusing them of tarnishing the reputation of the judiciary.

The Berlin-based watchdog last week released a report claiming that 84 percent of Bangladeshi households were victims of corruption at the hands of government officials and private businesses.

The warrant was issued against the chapter’s chairman, M. Hafizuddin Khan, its executive director, Iftekharuzzaman, and a senior research fellow, Md. Wahid Alam, a court official said.

A district court lawyer had lodged a libel suit against the trio, claiming the report tarnished the image of the judiciary and lawyers. Two separate defamation cases against the watchdog employees were also filed in the south-eastern port city of Chittagong.

TI’s report, which was based on the surveys of 6,000 households between June 2009 and May 2010, claimed that the judiciary topped the list for perceived corruption among 13 service sectors.

A government minister had earlier slammed the TI report, saying that it was a conspiracy against the country’s judiciary.