A special anti-corruption court on Wednesday jailed a former Bangladesh minister to 13 years for amassing a multi-million dollar fortune illegally, an official said. Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin, a junior aviation and tourism minister in the country's most recent elected government, was also fined 72,000 dollars, said Anti-Corruption Commission official Reba Halder.
The former Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lawmaker was arrested after the commission found about 3.9 million dollars in a bank account. Nasiruddin was unable to explain how the money had been acquired. His son, Mir Mohammad Helaluddin, was also sentenced to three years for aiding and abetting, Halder added.
Bangladesh has been under emergency rule since January when a political crisis over poll rigging allegations led to elections being cancelled. A new military-backed government was installed and in February launched a massive corruption crackdown aimed at cleaning up the country's notoriously tarnished politics before holding fresh elections by late 2008.
It has arrested more than 150 prominent politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats from both the BNP, which led a coalition government until last October, and the former main opposition Awami League. Special fast-track courts have been set up to try the corruption suspects. Nasiruddin was the fifth high profile detainee to be sentenced by the special courts.
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