DHAKA: An anti-corruption court yesterday formally charged an ex-Bangladeshi prime minister in a case involving the purchase of fighter jets from Russia during her 1996-2001 tenure, a government prosecutor said.

Judge Golam Mortuza Mazumdar of the special court set Sept. 3 to begin ex-Premier Hasina Wajed’s trial, prosecutor Syed Shamim Ahsan said. Hasina and five others, including former military and government officials, have been charged with financial irregularities in the purchase of eight Russian MiG-29 fighter planes for $924 million, according to the case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Hasina, who was arrested in July 2007 to face trial in several corruption cases, was freed on parole in June. She is currently in the United States for medical treatment. She is expected to return home in one month, her lawyer Shahara Khatun said.

Hasina and her Awami League party have rejected the corruption charges, saying they are politically motivated to prevent her from running in December elections meant to restore an elected government.

Bangladesh has been run for more than a year by an interim government that has jailed dozens of politicians, former bureaucrats and business leaders on corruption and other charges. The detainees include Hasina’s archrival, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.

The military-backed government came to power in January 2007 after President Iajuddin Ahmed declared a state of emergency following weeks of violent street protests over electoral reforms.

Meanwhile, a ship carrying more than 3,000 tons of rice from India sank near the outer anchorage of Bangladesh’s Chittagong port on Wednesday, port officials said. They said the Sri Lanka-flagged vessel Badulu Valley was in collision with an empty, anchored Chinese oil tanker called Heng Zhou, and sank in the Bay of Bengal during the afternoon.

Port officials had earlier said the vessel was carrying a Singapore flag. Port officials had also earlier given the name of the vessel as M.V. Batulu but the agent for the ship later corrected this. “The ship sank in the bay with its 17 crew on board,” a port official said.

Tugboats from the port authority and the Bangladesh Navy rescued 16 crewmembers, he said, but the fate of the remaining member was unknown. The crew comprised nationals from Myanmar and India, officials said.