Mahmudur Rahman jailed for 3 yrs

A Dhaka court on Thursday sentenced Amar Desh acting editor Mahmudur Rahman to three years’ jail in a case for non-submission of his wealth statement and also income sources filed with Anti-Corruption Commission. Judge Abu Ahmed Jamadar of the Special Judge’s Court-3, Dhaka, passed the order in the afternoon. Mahmudur Rahman acting editor of the vernacular daily and former BoI chief, was present in the court. The court also fined him Tk0.1 million (one lakh). He will have to suffer imprisonment of one month more if he fails to pay the fine. The court handed down the verdict after receiving statements of nine witnesses.
On April 27, 2014 the court indicted Mahmudur Rahman in the case. On September 11, 2014, the High Court summarily rejected the petition filed by detained Mahmudur Rahman seeking to revoke the charge framing order against him for not submitting his  wealth account to ACC. The court framed charges against him under section of Anti Corruption Commission Act of 2004 section-26(2)a. ACC deputy director and investigation officer in the case Nur Ahammad filed the case against the editor with Gulshan police on April 13, 2010. A charge sheet was submitted on  this case on July 15, 2010. On April 11, 2013, members of the detective branch (DB) of police picked up Mahmudur from his office. The arrest was made almost four months after the acting editor was sued for publishing reports on Skype conversations between former International Crimes Tribunal chairman Justice Nizamul Huq and an expatriate Bangladeshi legal expert Ahmed Ziauddin last year, according to UNB.

- mbz