Dhaka: A special court sentenced Bangladesh’s former president Hussain Muhammed Ershad to three years simple imprisonment after holding him guilty of amassing wealth beyond known sources of income.
The district and session judge held Ershad guilty. However the court acquitted the 62-year-old former president on the charge of misappropriating gifts worth taka 15 lakh. Ershad looked unruffled when Justice Khan read out his Verdict after nearly a year’s trial.
Earlier Justice Khan rejected a defense appeal that the sentence handed out run concurrently with the ten years imprisonment that Ershad was given last year for the Possession of unlicensed arms He is likely to appeal this verdict His appeal against the sentence for Possessing unlicensed arms is pending before the high court. Ershad was elected to parliament in Feb. 1991 but now is liable to lose his membership due to moral turpitude lawyers here said. Ershad who had seized power in a bloodless coup in 1982 resigned (on December 6 1990 and was arrested six days later under the special powers act of 1974.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 14, 1992
