Bangladesh police arrest former PM on corruption charges
Police in Bangladesh arrested former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia on corruption charges today, the latest in a series of moves by the military-backed government to undermine a political elite widely viewed as corrupt.
The interim government cancelled elections earlier this year after months of politically motivated violence, and analysts say it appears determined to keep Bangladesh’s two main political parties – and the pair of women who dominate them – from power when it restores democracy next year.
Zia, whose term ended in October, was arrested at her home in the Bangladeshi capital hours after a case was filed by an anti-corruption official against her and her youngest son, Arafat Rahman Coco, Dhaka Metropolitan Police official Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman said.
She was brought to court later in the morning, and insisted she and her son were innocent.
“This is a conspiracy to tarnish the image of my family and my party. We have done nothing wrong. This case against us must be lifted,” Zia told the court before being jailed pending trial. Her son was ordered held for seven days for questioning.
From the court, Zia, escorted by hundreds of police, was taken to a makeshift prison near the Parliament building. Her prison is just a few blocks from where her archrival and another ex-premier, Sheikh Hasina, has been held since July on extortion charges.
Zia is accused of misusing her power by awarding 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.
The complaint said Zia’s administration did not follow standard procedure in awarding the company work involving two cargo terminals, one in Dhaka’s Kamlapur Railway Station and another in the country’s main Chittagong seaport.
Zia’s elder son, Tarique Rahman, was arrested on charges of extortion in March. Rahman, a senior leader of Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party, is now in jail awaiting trial.
A case was filed separately late Sunday against Hasina on charges of taking a bribe in return to allow a company to build a power plant when she was in power in 1997, a police official said.
Hasina, a bitter rival of Zia, is accused of taking £220,000 from the Khulna Power Company Ltd. to approve the project, Dhaka Metropolitan Police official Jane Alam told reporters. She and her Awami League party have denied the allegation.
She faces three other charges of extortion and has been in jail awaiting trial since July 16.
Anti-Corruption Commission secretary Mokhlesur Rahman said his agency was investigating the graft charges against Zia and Hasina.
A Dhaka court issued a warrant allowing anti-graft investigators to search Zia’s home in the presence of a magistrate, the United News of Bangladesh agency reported.
Bangladesh has been ruled since mid-January by an interim government installed by the military after 30 people were killed in political clashes following the end of Zia’s term. National elections planned for January 22 were cancelled. A state of emergency is in force in the South Asian nation, barring all political gatherings.
The government, led by a former central bank governor, has vowed to fight corruption, reform electoral rules and clean up the nation’s factional and often violent politics before holding the next elections.
Zia and Hasina have dominated Bangladesh’s politics since their joint campaign ended years of military rule and restored democracy to their impoverished nation in 1990. 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.
Some analysts see in their arrests an attempt by the interim government to keep both from power when it holds new elections, promised for next year.
“The arrests of the two leaders indicate that the campaign is more politically motivated than targeting corruption,” said Bazlur Rahman, editor of Dhaka’s Sangbad daily.
“It now seems that they (the government) want to weaken the two large political parties to prevent them from winning the next election. I think the government wants to hold the election, but a hand-picked Parliament is what it wants,” he said.
At least six former ministers from both Hasina’s Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party have already been tried for corruption and misuse of power.
Bangladesh, an impoverished nation of 150 million people, is one of the world’s most corrupt countries according to the Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International.
