DHAKA, 8 October 2007 — A special court in Dhaka yesterday sentenced former Bangladesh Cricket Board chief Ali Asghar Lobby to 13 years in jail and his wife to three years on graft charges.
Lobby, who served as president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) for five years, was jailed for amassing illegal wealth worth 240 million taka ($3.5 million) and concealing income, anti-graft prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kazal said. He is also a former member of Parliament from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
“The special court has jailed Lobby (for) ten years for amassing a huge amount of illegal wealth. He was also sentenced (to) three years in jail for concealing income to the anti-corruption commission,” he said.
Lobby, a former Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lawmaker, was also fined one million taka and had his illegally-held property confiscated. His wife, Khusnud Asghar, was jailed for three years as an accessory.
Lobby, 55, served as the president of the BCB until 2006, when the BNP ended its five-year tenure. He also served as the president of the Asian Cricket Council in 2002-2004.
In July, a fast-track court set up by the emergency government sentenced Lobby to eight years in jail for dodging more than $2.4 million in taxes. The prosecutor said the jail terms would have to be served consecutively.
The former official is one of about 150 prominent graft suspects — from both the BNP and the former main opposition Awami League — who have been detained by the military-backed government.
On March 21, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed a case with police accusing Lobby and his wife of concealing information in their wealth statement submitted to the ACC. On Feb. 6, the army-led joint security forces arrested Lobby from his Gulshan house, while his wife from a Dhaka city hospital on June 26.
Earlier, Lobby was jailed for eight years for evading income tax. Bangladesh has been under emergency rule since Jan. 11, when polls scheduled for later that month were canceled after poll-rigging allegations against the BNP brought the country to the brink of anarchy.
The military-backed government was installed the following day and has vowed to clean up Bangladesh’s corruption-riddled politics before holding elections by the end of 2008.
Truth Commission to Benefit All
Mainul Hosein, law adviser to the interim government said yesterday the proposed Truth Commission would benefit many people apart from businessmen.
Bangladesh plans to set up a “Truth Commission” to give businessmen an opportunity to disclose details of corrupt deals before they are formally charged and arrested, a government official said.
The move came after business leaders met government officials to complain about a climate of fear following the government’s crackdown on corrupt politicians and officials in which hundreds of people have been arrested.
The businessmen said prices of essential goods had risen, partly because traders were refusing to transact any deals for fear of government action against them.
Under the proposed Truth Commission, businessmen could give details of corrupt deals to avoid being detained before prosecution formally begins, Mainul Hosein said earlier this week.
“We are planning to give corrupt businessmen a chance to reveal the truth before the commission and avoid being taken to jail before they have been tried and convicted,” he said.
