HC upholds 13yrs jail for BNP leader Mir Nasir

The High Court today upheld a lower court verdict that sentenced former BNP state minister for civil aviation Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin to 13 years’ imprisonment and his son Mir Mohammad Helaluddin to three years in jail for corruption charges.

The HC also ordered Nasiruddin and Helaluddin to surrender before a trial court in three months after the trial court will receive the certified copy of its verdict.

The HC bench of Justice AKM Abdul Hakim and Justice Fatema Najib came up with the verdict after holding hearing for around 40 days on the appeals filed by Nasiruddin and Helaluddin challenging the lower court verdict on them.

The bench dismissed the appeals seeking acquittal of the charges brought against them.

Advocate M Asaduzzaman, the lawyer for Nasiruddin and Helaluddin, told The Daily Star that his clients will move for appeals to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court challenging the HC verdict and for acquittal of the charges after surrendering to the trial court on receiving the certified copy of the HC verdict.

Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC) lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told this correspondent that the HC upheld the trial court verdict as the allegations of corruption against Nasiruddin and Helaluddin, who are now out of jail, have been proved beyond reasonable doubt.

The convicts are not on bail from now on following the HC verdict.

On July 4, 2007, an anti-graft tribunal sentenced Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin to 13 years’ imprisonment for corruption charges while it sentenced his son Mir Mohammad Helaluddin to three years in jail for abetting his father in the corruption.

The Special Court-2 set up at the MP Hostel in the parliament complex in the capital also fined Mir Nasir Tk 50 lakh and said in default of the fine he will have to spend another two years in jail.

Nasir was handed down 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment for illegally accumulating huge wealth and three years’ simple jail for concealing information of wealth worth Tk 6,72,68,000 in the report he had submitted to the ACC.

Helal was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment and fined Tk one lakh for trying to withdraw and transfer about Tk 5.64 crore from their family joint accounts to the accounts of his wife and mother-in-law to help his father conceal property information, the ACC lawyer said.

The special court also directed the government to confiscate their wealth worth Tk 27,94,91,000 which is disproportionate to the known sources of income of Nasir and his son.

On March 6, 2007, ACC Deputy Director Sharmin Ferdous filed a graft case with Gulshan Police Station against Nasir for amassing properties illegally.

According to the charge sheet, Nasir, his late wife Dalia Naznin Nasir, their daughter and son have wealth worth Tk 29.22 crore. But they showed properties worth about Tk 22.50 crore in the wealth statement, concealing information of properties worth Tk 6.72 crore.

The ACC found that the former state minister has Tk 1.28 crore legal savings.