Ex-Bangladesh PM Zia arrested, sent to jail

DHAKA—Police in Bangladesh arrested former prime minister Khaleda Zia on Monday as part of a major campaign against corruption launched by the country’s army-backed government. Zia, 63, and her younger son Arafat Rahman Coco were taken from their Dhaka home to court and remanded in custody pending an investigation by the government’s anti-graft body, officials said.
They were the latest of some 150 high-profile figures to be hauled in by the authorities. “Her lawyer pleaded for bail for Zia and son. But the court refused bail and sent her to jail. It also remanded her son to seven days in police custody,” deputy commissioner Shahidul Haq Bhuiyan said. “She has been sent to a special jail” at a parliament building complex close to another special prison where her bitter rival Sheikh Hasina Wajed, another former prime minister, is being held, he added.
Bangladesh has been ruled under a state of emergency by a military-backed interim government since January, when elections were cancelled. The polls were scrapped due to months of violence over vote-rigging allegations made by Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party against Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The two women have also been blamed for 16 years of misrule during which corruption became rampant in Bangladesh. The government has vowed to clean up the country’s politics before holding new elections by the end of 2008.
Bangladesh’s anti-graft commission filed its first case against Zia, who ruled the country twice between 1991-96 and 2001-2006, late Sunday. She and her younger son are alleged to have illegally influenced the selection of an operator for two state-run container depots, costing the government some 10 billion taka (145 million dollars). Her eldest son and heir apparent Tareque Rahman was detained in April over separate extortion charges.
A large contingent of police surrounded Zia’s house in Dhaka early Monday morning. Zia, who was dressed in a white sari, looked calm and waved to a crowd as she was led to court amid heavy security. “She told the court that the case was fabricated, motivated, conspiratorial and fictitious. It is aimed at forcing her out of politics. She said she would come back more stronger,” said one of her lawyers, Abdul Wadud Khandaker. But Information Minister Mainul Hosein insisted the government’s anti-graft body was “neutral in pursuing corruption cases.” The government would also consider easing restrictions on political gatherings, Hosein added, since the leaders of the two main parties have been detained. Political activities are currently banned under the emergency measures. —Agencies