The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday acquitted Bangladesh Nationalist Party acting chairman Tarique Rahman and businessman Giasuddin Al Mamun of money laundering charges for which they were jailed for seven years during the ousted Awami League regime.
A four-member bench led by chief justice Syed Refaat Ahmed granted Mamun鈥檚 appeal, overturning the seven-year prison sentence imposed by a lower court in 2013. The lower court verdict was upheld by the High Court in 2016.
During the hearing, lawyer SM Shajahan made a verbal prayer to acquit Tarique and argued that if an accused was acquitted of a charge, a co-accused in a similar charge should receive the same benefit.
The court allowed the plea and acquitted Tarique of the charge.
Tarique鈥檚 lawyer Kayser Kamal told 抖阴精品 that BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, who faced prosecution in 84 cases and received jail terms in at least five cases, now has only one case left to resolve.
He said that Tarique, who was tried in absentia, was expected to be cleared of the remaining one case soon through legal proceedings.
He claimed that the cases against his client were fabricated and politically motivated.
The pending case, filed during the army-backed caretaker government in 2008, accuses Tarique of concealing wealth worth Tk 2.16 crore in his statement to the ACC and amassing Tk 2.74 crore beyond his known sources of income.
A Dhaka court sentenced Tarique to nine years in prison and his wife, physician Zubaida Rahman, to three years in the case on August 2, 2023.
Following her application, the home ministry suspended Zubaida鈥檚 sentence for one year through a notification in October 2024, on the condition that she would surrender to the court and file an appeal against her conviction.
The money laundering case against Tarique and Mamun was filed by the ACC in October 2009 with the Cantonment police
station, accusing them of laundering Tk 20.41 crore to Singapore between 2003 and 2007.
Following an ACC appeal, the High Court had also sentenced Tarique to seven years, overturning his previous acquittal by the lower court.
Tarique, currently residing in London, was tried in absentia, while Mamun was released on bail after the fall of the Awami League regime amid a mass uprising on August 5, 2024.
On November 17, 2013, Dhaka鈥檚 3rd Special Judge Court acquitted Tarique and jailed Mamun for seven years and fined him Tk 40 crore.
The ACC challenged Tarique鈥檚 acquittal by filing an appeal on December 5, 2013, while Mamun also appealed against his conviction.
On July 21, 2016, the High Court overturned Tarique鈥檚 acquittal, sentencing him to seven years in prison and fining him Tk 20 crore.
It upheld Mamun鈥檚 seven-year sentence but reduced his fine from Tk 40 crore to Tk 20 crore.
According to the case documents, the ACC had accused Tarique and Mamun of taking over Tk 20 crore in bribes and laundering the money abroad.
Following the verdict, Judge Motahar Hossain fled the country amid pressure from the then-Awami League regime.
