New graft charges against Sheikh Hasina

DHAKA—Detained former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed was charged on Sunday in a new graft case as part of the emergency government’s corruption crackdown, police said.
The country’s anti-graft commission alleged that Sheikh Hasina accepted a 30 million taka (435,000 dollars) bribe from a leading private power producer in a case filed with police, officer Jane Alam said. “The anti-corruption commission has accused her of taking the bribe in 1997 when she was prime minister. She used the money to buy a piece of land for the Bangabandhu Memorial Trust, a charity she leads,” Alam said.
Sheikh Hasina, who was prime minister from 1996 to 2001, has also been accused in at least five more cases involving graft and murder. The 59-year-old leader, who is being held at a house inside the parliament complex, is among 150 high-profile figures who have been arrested as part of an anti-graft campaign launched by an army-backed government that came to power in January. She has denied all charges and told a court last month that they were aimed at forcing her out of politics. The government has rejected the claim. Bangladesh has been under emergency rule since January 11 when elections were cancelled after months of violence over vote-rigging allegations made by Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party against the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The BNP-led government of Khaleda Zia, the country’s last elected premier, held power until last October.—Agencies