Bangladesh opposition leader's son jailed

Published July 21, 2016

FILE - In this March 8, 2007 file photo, Tarique Rahman, center, who was charged with receiving bribes, is escorted by Bangladeshi security personnel to a court in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Bangladesh's High Court on Thursday, July 21, 2016 sentenced Rahman the son of the country's top opposition leader Khaleda Zia to seven years in jail in a money laundering case, overturning an acquittal handed down by a lower court. (AP Photo/Indrajit Kumer Ghosh, File) (The Associated Press)

Bangladesh's High Court has sentenced a son of the country's opposition leader to seven years in jail in a money laundering case, overturning an acquittal handed down by a lower court.

The decision against Tarique Rahman, also an opposition figure and an heir apparent to his mother Khaleda Zia, a former prime minister, was handed down Thursday by a two-member bench.

Defense lawyer Zainul Abedin said the court also fined him 200 million takas ($2.54 million). Abedin said they have not decided if they will appeal to the Supreme Court.

In 2013, a Dhaka court acquitted Rahman of charges that he and a businessman friend siphoned off 204.1 million takas to Singapore between 2003 and 2007.

Rahman, the senior vice chairman of Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party, lives in London.

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