HASINA FACES NUMEROUS ALLEGATIONS OF CORRUPTION,

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 001161 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PGOV KGOV KDEM BG SUBJECT: HASINA FACES NUMEROUS ALLEGATIONS OF CORRUPTION, EXTORTION REF: DHAKA 1152 ¶1. SUMMARY. (SBU) On July 16, Awami League president Sheikh Hasina was arrested at her Dhaka residence and brought to court on charges of extortion. The charges stem from an alleged bribe Hasina and her cousin, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, extracted from a company seeking permission to build an electricity generating plant in 2001. In addition to this charge, several other charges are pending against Hasina. END SUMMARY. THE BACKGROUND ============== ¶2. (SBU) Early on July 16, Awami League president Sheikh Hasina was arrested at her Dhaka residence and brought before the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, where she was charged in an extortion case. The magistrate denied bail and transferred the case to the Special Anti-Trafficking Court. Hasina was then transferred to a sub-jail created for her detention in the empty residence of the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, located on the Parliament grounds. A date for the framing of charges against her in the Special Court is pending. Lawyers for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) will prosecute the case on behalf of the government. THE ACCUSATION ============== ¶3. (SBU) Hasina faces charges that she and her cousin, jailed Awami League Presidium member Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, demanded bribes from the representative of a Russian power company named Techno Prom Export in 2001. The local representative of Techno Prom was Eastcoast Trading Private Limited. Its managing director, Azam Chowdhury, filed the charges against Hasina on June 12. ¶4. (SBU) According to Azam Chowdhury, Techno Prom received a work order to build and commission the first phase of a power plant in Narayanganj in 2000, when Hasina was Prime Minister and Sheikh Selim was Health Minister. Techno Prom hired Eastcoast Trading to be its local representative in Bangladesh. Sheikh Selim informed Chowdhury that Hasina would stop the project and prevent the government's Power Development Board from paying Techno Prom if they did not pay a "commission." Chowdhury paid Selim 29 million taka, ($420,000) in eight checks drawn from Standard Chartered Bank and Southeast Bank. ¶5. (SBU) Selim was arrested on May 29. In an open court hearing on June 21, he confessed that he extorted the 29 million taka from Eastcoast and divided it with Hasina. Investigators working with the Anti-Corruption Commission have reportedly traced the checks back to accounts controlled by Hasina and Selim, prompting Hasina's formal arrest. THE OTHER CASES =============== ¶6. (SBU) According to open media and government sources, the following cases against Hasina that are currently being investigated by the police and the ACC: A) Tajul Islam Farook, chairman of Westmont Power Company, filed a case against Hasina on April 9 alleging extortion and abuse of power. Farook says that in 1998, when Hasina was Prime Minister, she demanded a three million taka ($43,000) bribe from his company to secure the contract to construct and launch a 90-megawatt barge-mounted power plant for the government. Westmont won the bid. The case is currently under investigation. B) Noor Ali, director of Unique Group and managing director of the Dhaka Westin Hotel, filed an extortion case against Hasina. He alleged he paid Hasina and her cousin Sheikh Helal over 50 million taka ($725,000),and transferred to Helal's wife ownership of two apartments in 1998 to resolve a dispute between his company and the Power Development Board over his company's construction of a 110-megawatt barge-mounted power plant. Ali claims he personally handed to then-Prime Minister Hasina twelve checks amounting to over 32 million taka ($463,000),with the remainder paid directly to Helal. This case is also currently under investigation. DHAKA 00001161 002 OF 002 C) The Bureau of Anti-Corruption (BAC),predecessor to the ACC, filed a case against Hasina in December 2001, alleging corruption deals she made while Prime Minister to purchase eight MiG-29 fighter planes from Russia and a naval frigate from South Korea. On May 28, the interim government appealed to the High Court to resume hearing the two graft cases against Hasina. The High Court will hear Hasina's petition to dismiss the proceedings on August 1. D) In October 2002 an investigative officer submitted a charge sheet against Hasina accusing her and other former ministers of corruption involving the contract to construct the Meghnaghat Power Plant. A trial was initiated in October 2002, but the High Court stayed the case later that year. On May 16, the High Court decided to lift the stay and scheduled a July 25 hearing of Hasina's petition to dismiss the case. E) On April 11, police charged Hasina, Jamaat Islami president Matiur Rahman Nizami, and 50 other politicians with murder, incitement to violence, and other serious offenses connected to the street demonstrations and riots on October 28, 2006. Seven people were killed in the clashes between Awami League and Jamaat Islami supporters in downtown Dhaka. On July 16, Bangladesh press reported incorrectly that Hasina was also being charged in this case. Investigators are continuing to collect evidence in this case. THE PUBLIC DEBATE ================= ¶7. (SBU) In news appearances in the United States shortly after Hasina's arrest, her son Sajeb Wazed "Joy" decried his mother's detention, claiming she was arrested without a warrant, and that her detention was undemocratic and politically motivated. A government lawyer familiar with the case said Hasina was not detained under the government's Special Powers Act, but had been charged in a specific bribery case. The lawyer stated that under Bangladesh's Criminal Procedure Code, a warrant is not required in such a case. The lawyer added that Hasina's detention came only after an extensive investigation into the charges, including the testimony of her cousin, Sheikh Selim. ¶8. (SBU) Post continues to monitor the arrest and cases against Hasina closely. PASI