High profile Bangladeshi jailed

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/south_asia/7033525.stm

Version 0 of 1.

A former Bangladeshi and Asian cricket chief and MP has been sentenced to 13 years in jail as part of the government's fight against corruption.

Ali Asgar Lobi is an influential leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and close to Tarique Rahman, the son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.

Lobi's wife was also sentenced to three years imprisonment in the same case.

They were both found guilty on Sunday of acquiring wealth - including a house and a car - through dishonest means.

"The special court has jailed Lobi (for) 10 years for amassing a huge amount of illegal wealth. He was also sentenced (to) three years in jail for concealing income to the anti-corruption commission," prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kazal told the AFP news agency.

The former Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lawmaker was also fined one million taka ($14.500) and had property deemed to be illegal confiscated.

Tarique Rahman has been in prison since March

Lobi served as president of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) for five years, and from 2002-2004 was president of the Asian Cricket Council.

Meanwhile lawyers acting on behalf of the military-backed caretaker government say that plans to establish a "truth commission" - under which business people can confess their crimes - are now well underway.

"The government will set up the truth commission as soon as possible in a bid to spur economic activities which have slowed down after the authorities launched their crackdown," Syed Anisul Haq, a senior Supreme Court lawyer who is drawing up the proposals for the commission, told the AFP news agency.

"The idea is to offer an amnesty to top businessmen. Their absence has led to the collapse of their enterprises and dragged the whole economy down," he said.

He said that members of the business community wanting to benefit from the amnesty must return the proceeds of any corrupt deals.

Correspondents say it is the first time that Bangladeshi authorities have acknowledged that sweeping reforms aimed at cleaning up the country's notoriously corrupt political and economic system have had damaging side-effects.