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Bangladesh

Bangladesh's top leaders may be forced out

2007-06-21

The leaders of Bangladesh’s main political parties are likely to lose their positions as a result of an anti-graft crackdown by the country’s emergency government, a minister said Wednesday. “We are filing corruption cases as part of overall reforms. We are not doing it to settle scores,” interim law minister Moinul Hosein told the private ATN television channel. “The legal process we have initiated will not even allow many to stay as leaders because of their involvement in corruption,” Hosein added. The minister’s comments came amid flurry of reports that reformists in Bangladesh’s two main parties have planned sweeping changes that may force out two former prime ministers as rival party heads. Khaleda Zia, a two-time prime minister and the leader of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), reportedly faces a rebellion and would be asked to quit as party chief by a reformist group led by her party’s secretary general. Sheikh Hasina Wajed, who was premier between 1996 and 2001 and the leader of Awami League, also faces similar rebellion, according to reports in newspapers. The two have dominated the political landscape since 1991 after military dictator Hussain Mohammad Ershad was forced out. Sheikh Hasina has been charged with corruption in at least half a dozen cases by the military-backed government. Her bitter rival, Zia, is also under investigation for corruption. Zia’s elder son and heir apparent, Tareque Rahman, has also been arrested and charged with extortion. Supporters barred from visiting Hasina: The government has barred party colleagues from visiting former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, a spokesman for the politician said on Wednesday. Police have not allowed anyone except Hasina’s close relatives to enter her Dhaka residence since Tuesday evening. “We are not allowed to go in, as if Sheikh Hasina is under house arrest,” press secretary Abul Kalam Azad told Reuters. A senior police officer said security around the residence of Hasina, top leader of the Awami League, and that of Begum Khaleda Zia, her bitter rival and head of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), had been tightened following what he said had been visible commotions in their parties over proposed reforms. Groups of leaders and activists have been meeting separately over proposals for internal party reform in both parties.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Ershad's Estranged Wife Faces Money Laundering Charge

2005-06-18

The estranged wife of former Bangladesh dictator Hussain Mohammad Ershad, arrested earlier this month on charges including threatening to kill her husband, remained behind bars yesterday after a fresh allegation of money laundering was filed against her. "She was granted bail on Thursday but when I went to the jail with the court order I was told there was another charge of money laundering against her," Sayed Quamrujjaman Mahbub, her lawyer, told AFP. Money laundering is a non-bailable offence in Bangladesh. Bidisha, 38, has been in police custody since June 4 after the one-time military strongman, now 77, lodged complaints with police. In addition to the money laundering charge, she is accused of theft, criminal damage, forgery, bigamy, and threats to kill, said another member of her legal team, Sarah Hossen. Two days after Bidisha's arrest, her husband left the country telling reporters she was a bigamist. He said he believed she was still married to her former husband Peter Wilson, of Britain, because she named him as her spouse in a 2002 passport application.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Ex-Bangla dictator lands wife in court, flies out amid hoots of derision

2005-06-07

On today's Jerry: Gold-digging Banglababes and the ex-dictators who love them! A day after landing his wife in court on charges of theft, former Bangladesh dictator Hussain Mohammad Ershad flew out of the country Monday, denouncing the mother of his only son as a bigamist. "She cheated me. She has got two husbands," the one-time military strongman, now 77, told a large crowd of reporters at Dhaka's Zia International airport en route to Saudia Arabia. "I am going to Arabia, and you all can go to hell!" Ershad said he believed his wife was a bigamist because she had named her former husband as her spouse in a 2002 passport application. "She didn't divorce her former husband ... I divorced her on June 3," he added, without giving details of any official divorce proceedings. "I never even knew I had a husband-in-law! I'm an ex-dictator! She can't do that to me!" Ershad's secretary Khaled Akhter told AFP that Ershad believed his second wife had not divorced her British husband, Peter Wilson. "He (Ershad) divorced her on Friday," he said, also declining to elaborate. On Sunday, Bidisha Ershad, 35, collapsed in court when she appeared to face allegations of theft, criminal damage, and making threats to Ershad's life. Police arrested her on Saturday after Ershad accused her of stealing money and ornaments, damaging property, and threatening to kill him. Her lawyers said the second wife of the former president was the victim of a "deep conspiracy". "Yeah! It's a deep-laid plot if I ever saw one!" Television newscasts on Saturday showed dramatic scenes of her threatening to throw herself from an upper storey of her apartment building before police managed to take her into custody. "Jump! Jump!" Their deteriorating relationship has been making headlines in recent weeks in Bangladeshi newspapers. On Thursday, Ershad, Bangladesh's military ruler between 1982 and 1990, expelled his wife from his centrist Jatiya Party, the third largest party in parliament. The couple married five years ago after a long affair. As well as a young son with Ershad, Bidisha Ershad has two sons with her former husband Wilson. "Jer-ry! Jer-ry! Jer-ry! Jer-ry!"

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