SC okays trials of three BNP leaders

The Supreme Court yesterday cleared the way for the lower courts concerned to run trial proceedings of corruption cases against three BNP leaders including Moudud Ahmed.
The other leaders are: BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and former BNP lawmaker MA Hashem.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the cases against them during the previous military-backed caretaker regime.
The SC yesterday upheld two High Court verdicts that gave the go-ahead to continue trial proceedings of two corruption cases against Moudud and Mosharraf after hearing separate petitions filed by the two.
Moudud was sued by the ACC on September 16, 2007 on charges of amassing illegal wealth and concealing information about his wealth. Mosharraf was sued for the same reasons on January 10, 2008.
The apex court also scrapped another HC verdict that quashed the proceedings of the graft case against Hashem after hearing an ACC petition.
Hashem was sued by the anti-graft body on December 5, 2007, for accumulating property worth Tk 19.81 crore illegally. The HC on January 19, 2012 scrapped the trial proceedings of Hashem's graft case.
It also upheld its verdict that scrapped jail sentence of Awami League lawmaker Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir and cleared him of corruption charges.
It disposed of a review petition filed by the ACC against its verdict that on July 4, 2010 had affirmed an earlier HC verdict which scrapped a 13-year prison sentence against Alamgir.   
The ACC filed the case accusing Alamgir of making a huge fortune through misuse of power and concealing information in the wealth statement submitted to the commission.