Aman sentenced to 13 yrs, wife 3 yrs in jail for corruption

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Former state minister and BNP leader Amanullah Aman and his wife Sabera Aman were Thursday sentenced to thirteen years and three years in jail respectively by a special court in a graft case. —FocusBangla file photo

Former State Minister and BNP leader Amanullah Aman was Thursday sentenced to thirteen years in jail while his wife Sabera was jailed for three years by a special court in a graft case, one of scores being faced by bigwigs of the past political era, report agencies.
Meting out further punishment to the once-powerful politician, the makeshift special judge's court ordered confiscating his wealth amassed by 'illegal means'.
Aman, also a former student leader of the BNP student front JCD and VP of DUCSU, will also have to pay a fat fine of Tk 0.1 million (10 lakh) or, in default, suffer one more year in jail.
Judge M Firoz Alam of the anti-graft court set up at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, after examining 23 prosecution witnesses and records, found the couple guilty and handed down the prison sentences.
"As the court pronounced the judgement, both of them remained stoical -- Aman standing in the dock and his wife sitting in the wheelchair," says a firsthand account of the delivery of judgement.
The court found the State Minister for Labour and Manpower of the immediate-past government guilty on a double score-concealing information in his statement of wealth submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and amassing wealth worth over Tk 100 million (10 crore) by abusing power.
He was sentenced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment (RI) for amassing wealth illegally and to three years simple imprisonment for concealing facts about the actual volume of assets he made.
"The two sentences will run consecutively," the court edict said, meaning that he will have to serve the two jail terms one after another.
Earlier, Aman was brought to court at 9.30 am from Dhaka Central Jail in a prison van and Sabera, a cancer patient, was brought from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital by ambulance.
Sabera Aman was convicted of aiding and abetting her husband in protecting their ill-gotten property.
Army-led joint forces arrested Amanullah Aman on February 5 in the ongoing drive against suspected corrupt politicians, business tycoons and the other influential who are said to have spun money allegedly by plundering public wealth.
The war on corruption was launched after the present caretaker government (CG) took over amid political turmoil over election issues, taking a cue from media hype on Bangladesh's corruption profile.
The fast-track court trying the bigwig corruption suspects has so far disposed of three cases within seven weeks since it started rolling on May 6 with a long list of such accused.
Earlier, the court had sentenced in absentia Harris Chowdhury, political secretary to former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, to three
years imprisonment for non-submission of his statement of wealth to the ACC.
And Giasuddin Al Mamun, a much-talked-about businessman and close friend of Begum Zia's son Tarique Rahman, who is also in custody in connection with a number of criminal cases, was jailed for three years for piling up wealth worth about Tk 620 million (62 crore), disproportionate to his legal sources of income.
Senior Advocate Abdul Malek with ABM Shah Jahan and Amatun Noor Begum appeared for the Aman couple while Mahbub Ahmed, the ACC public prosecutor, stood for the state.