DHAKA, 19 September 2007 — A Bangladesh court yesterday acquitted former army ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad in a 16-year-old gold smuggling case, citing lack of evidence, lawyers and court officials said.
Ershad, separately, stands convicted for squandering state funds in a deal to purchase patrol boats from Japan while he was in power from 1982 to 1990.
He was given a two-year sentence but the court ruled that he did not need to serve it since he had already been imprisoned for more than five years for other graft cases.
According to the prosecution, customs officials arrested four people including two foreign nationals at the Zia International Airport on July 17, 1990, for trying to smuggle gold worth about 25 million taka into Bangladesh. A smuggling case was filed with the police against the four — Bernard Rudiger of Germany, David Anthony Chalmar Chaker of England, the then manager of the Zia International Airport retired Maj. Ashraf Uddin Sekender and Abu Taher, an airport security guard. Investigators later found Ershad was involved in the smuggling. The court yesterday observed that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against Ershad and so he was acquitted.
Bernard, David, Ashraf and Taher were convicted and handed down sentences on May 14, 1992.
“The former president has been acquitted as none of the eight listed witnesses produced any evidence before the court,” Ershad’s lawyer Sheikh Serajul Islam told reporters. “Thanks to Allah, this time I have got justice,” Ershad told reporters after the verdict.
