Bangladesh is heading for elections in early January 2024 and the country is already in turmoil due to related developments during the past few months. While the Awami League is gearing up to secure its fifth consecutive term in the upcoming election, the main opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP) is suffering from a crisis of political legitimacy with its main leaders entangled in a series of corruption cases committed during their rule from 2001-06. In fact, according to the Transparency International (TI)’s corruption perception index (CPI), Bangladesh was listed as the most corrupt country in the world for five consecutive years from 2001 to 2005. It is, therefore, important to revisit the corruption cases brought by the BNP during its political leadership.
Bangladeshi public officials and Bangladesh National Party (BNP) chief Khaleda Zia’s younger son Arafat Rahman Koko (now deceased) was accused of taking bribes between May 2001 and August 2006 to grant a major telecom project. Koko had received a bribe of $1,80,000 in September 2005 to help set up mobile network, including kickbacks of $200million deposited in his name. At least one payment to each of these purported consultants was admitted to be paid from a US bank account. Following this, the US Department of Justice filed a forfeiture action to confiscate around $3 million from Koko’s bank accounts maintained in Singapore. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), with assistance from the Singapore government in 2007, found out possession of foreign currencies by Koko deposited in a Singapore account in the name of his company ZASZ.
In 2009, the Awami League government decided to take legal action and Koko was sued for money-laundering by the ACC in March 2009. Koko had also taken bribe from China Harbour Engineering Company to help in getting contracts. In 2011, Koko was sentenced to six-years of imprisonment on charge of money laundering of more than $2.66million from two foreign companies including. However, the BNP has denied these charges, claiming them to be politically motivated.
Khaleda Zia’s eldest son, Tarique Rahman, the acting chairman of the BNP, is also embroiled in corruption cases. During the 2001-06 tenure of BNP-led government, Tarique Rahman used to run Hawa Bhawan, controversial for being an alternative centre of power. He was arrested in anti-corruption crackdown in 2007 but was released on bail a year later following which he flew to the UK to seek medical treatment and has remained in self-exile in London since.
In 2008, the Bangladesh government requested for US assistance and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sent its agent Debra LaPrevotte to Dhaka to obtain information regarding bribery cases. In 2009, the ACC filed a case against Rahman and his close business associate Gias Uddin Al Mamun on charge of money laundering between 2003-2007. For the first time in history, an FBI agent appeared before Dhaka court to testify against Rahman and Mamun. It was unearthed in the investigation that an amount of $750,000 bribe (claimed to be consultancy fee) was received in a Singapore bank account in name of Gias Uddin Al Mamun from Khadiza Islam in 2005.
Islam was the Director of Nirman Construction Ltd who granted the contract of installing an 80MW capacity power plant at Tongi to China’s Harbin Engineering Company (as its local agent). In her testimony, LaPrevotte mentioned two credit cards being found from two of Mamun’s Singapore accounts, one in his name and the other in Tarique Rahman’s. Rahman used his credit card for his many foreign travels, including shopping and medical expenses, indicating that a share of the bribe received by Mamun was used by Rahman for the said purpose. While Mamun was sentenced to jail and a fine was imposed, the Dhaka Special Court Judge Motahar Hossain acquitted Rahman of the charge in 2013.
Rahman’s acquittal, however, was overturned by the High Court in 2016 and he was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment. In its verdict, the High Court observed, “This kind of corruption being backed by political influence threatens good governance, sustainable development and democratic process.”
Rahman has been further sentenced to nine years of imprisonment on corruption charges filed by government in 2007 by a Bangladesh court in August this year. A confidential cable from Dhaka’s US Embassy in 2008 released by Wikileaks mentions a ban on Rahman’s entry into the US for being “guilty of egregious political corruption that has had a serious adverse effect on US national interests… namely the stability of democratic institutions and US foreign assistance goals.”
In 2007, the ACC filed a case against BNP chief Khaleda Zia and seven others accusing them of power abuse by signing a deal with Canadian Company Niko for awarding gas exploration and extraction deal during her prime ministerial tenure (2001-06) that cost a loss of more than TK 137 billion crore to state exchequer. Niko was behind the gas drilling at Chhatak gas field in Tengratila of Sunamganj in 2005 which caused an accidental explosion leading to loss of life and property and considerable environmental damage. In 2011 before a Canadian court, Niko pleaded guilty of bribing a public officer—the then Energy and Mineral Resources Minister AKM Mosharraf Hossein—providing him a vehicle worth $190,984 for his personal use with the intention to influence him in securing business dealings and to gain concession for its fine imposed on Niko for the 2005 blowout. Moreover, Niko covered Hossein’s personal travel and accommodation expenses (of about $5000) in the US.
In 2017, on the basis of evidence provided by ACC, FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Supreme Court delivered a judgement that during the period 2003-06, a scheme of bribery and corruption was set up for payment of bribes by Niko which was unearthed by international law enforcing authorities acting in close co-operation for the purposes of fighting the global menace of corruption. Recently, foreign witnesses including two Canadian cops and a former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent were granted permission by a Dhaka court to testify in the case, revealing shocking details of money transfers by Niko through international banking channels to deposit funds for securing the deal.
The period between 2001-06 under the Zia’s leadership was marred by several such corruption cases. Khaleda Zia herself is facing at least 33 such cases, and was sentenced in two separate cases—the Zia Charitable Trust Graft case and Zia Orphanage Trust Corruption Case. The Zia family has many corruption cases slapped against them that are under trial at present, all filed by the ACC in 2007 when Bangladesh was under a caretaker government.
As the country is gearing up for elections soon, is it important for people to remember these cases and the cost the country had to endure as a result and decide if they can afford another tenure of corruption.
The writer is an author and columnist and has written several books. He tweets @ArunAnandLive. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views
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