Bangladesh court sends Jamaat-e-Islami chief to jail

DHAKA: A special graft court on Monday ordered the two top leaders of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and the former finance minister in Khaleda Zia's government to jail to face trial in a graft case under the tough emergency power rules.
JI chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, secretary general Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid and senior Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader and ex-finance minister Saifur Rahman were brought to Dhaka Central Jail under heavy security escorts as judge Amar Kumar Roy rejected their bail prayers after their personal appearance at the makeshift court at parliament complex.
Hundreds of JI activists crowded round the complex chanting anti-government slogans while police closed the adjacent Manik Mia Avenue and Rokeya Sarani for traffic as part of a tight security cordon.
The three high-profile politicians earlier appeared before the High Court with their bail prayers but a bench there ordered them to surrender to the trial court in connection with the Barapukria coalmine case, in which Zia too is an accused.
Another accused in the case, former energy minister AKM Mosharraf Hossain, was sent to jail on Sunday after he surrendered to the court.
Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case on February 26 this year accusing 16 people including Zia of causing a loss of taka 159 crore to the state exchequer by awarding a contract for operating the coalmine to a Chinese company through abuse of power.
Zia and several other co-accused earlier obtained bail in the case from the Supreme Court.