DHAKA, 20 March 2007 — A court in Bangladesh formally recorded extortion charges yesterday against Tareque Rahman, detained son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, and rejected his bail petition.
“Speedy trial court judge Abdur Rouf Khan took cognizance of the case as a police officer read out charges of extortion against Tareque,” a court registrar said. Tareque did not speak during the 15-minute hearing and his bail plea was rejected by the presiding magistrate. “The court has remanded him until March 29,” the court official said. Police escorted a pale-looking Tareque, wearing a lightblue T-shirt, into court through a crush of lawyers and visitors, witnesses said.
“He was brought into court amid tight security,” one witness told Reuters.
Tareque was charged with illegally taking 10 million taka ($145,000) in January from the owner of a construction firm.
“The trial will end in the next 60 days,” a Law Ministry official said yesterday. “The speedy trial courts are mandated to complete trials within the stipulated time (two months).” Bangladesh’s army-backed interim government said, meanwhile, it might allow indoor political activity to resume in three months but would not rush into holding elections.
All political activity has been banned since authorities imposed a state of emergency and postponed parliamentary elections planned for Jan. 22 in the wake of widespread violence. “We are planning to lift the ban (on indoor politics),” Mainul Husein, the administration’s law and information adviser, told reporters late on Sunday. But he ruled out holding elections until more reforms were in place.
An anti-corruption drive launched alongside the emergency has resulted in more than 160 arrests of senior political figures — including Tareque, whose mother’s term as prime minister expired last October.
Bangladesh is now being run by a caretaker government headed by former central bank chief Fakhruddin Ahmed.
