A former communications minister in Bangladesh who is in jail on bribery charges was sentenced to a further 10 years Thursday after being found guilty of amassing more than a million dollars illegally, a state prosecutor said.
Nazmul Huda was also found guilty of concealing wealth information, for which he was given a two-year jail term to run concurrently, special public prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kazal said.
"The anti-corruption court also fined him 10 million taka (145,000 dollars)," he said. Huda's wife Sigma Huda, who was a special United Nations rappoteur, was acquitted of the charges, Kazal added. Huda, one of the key ministers during the Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led coalition government from 2001-06, was found guilty of amassing 80 million taka on Thursday.
Last year he was jailed for seven years after being convicted of taking a 24 million taka bribe from businessmen. Sigma was also jailed for three years for her role in that case.
Huda also faces other graft charges. More than a dozen former ministers, lawmakers and their family members have already been sentenced to between five and 20 years in jail by the fast-track anti-graft courts set up by the military-backed government. Bangladesh has been under emergency rule since January 11, 2007, when elections were cancelled after months of violence over claims of vote-rigging.
An army-backed government took power on January 12 and launched a massive crackdown on corruption a month later. More than 150 top politicians including two former prime ministers - Khaleda Zia of the BNP and her bitter rival Sheikh Hasina Wajed of the Awami League - have been detained as part of the crackdown. The new government has pledged to clean up the country's politics before reinstating democracy through fresh elections in late 2008.
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