Bangladesh’s ex-chief justice sentenced to 11 years in jail for money laundering

By Md. Kamruzzaman

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – A former chief justice of Bangladesh was on Tuesday sentenced in absentia to 11 years in jail for money laundering and criminal breach of trust.

Surendra Kumar Sinha, 70, served as chief justice for two years before leaving the country and resigning in 2017.

His abrupt departure came months after a Supreme Court verdict took away the parliament’s power to sack the country’s top judges.

Sinha is currently in Canada and has applied for asylum, sources in Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission told Anadolu Agency.

A court in the capital Dhaka found him guilty of laundering approximately $471,000 in connivance with officials of a private bank.

There were 10 more people indicted in the case, eight of whom have been convicted and handed down varying punishments.

Sinha, a Hindu, was Bangladesh’s first chief justice from a religious minority.

He was once said to be very close to the ruling Awami League party, with the relationship believed to have soured after the July 2017 Supreme Court ruling struck down a 2014 constitutional amendment that gave lawmakers the authority to remove judges.

The court’s decision was widely hailed by rights groups and the legal fraternity as a safeguard for judicial independence.

The government has challenged the ruling and a review petition remains pending with the Appellate Division of the court, but the practice of parliament sacking top judges has since been suspended.

Sinha, who left Bangladesh in October 2017 and submitted his resignation from abroad, claimed in his autobiography that a military spy agency – the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) – compelled him to quit and leave the country.

He wrote that the government had put him under virtual house arrest and DGFI personnel in plainclothes had taken control of the entire Supreme Court premises.

Law Minister Anisul Haq had denied Sinha’s claims, saying his assertions were evidence of the frustration of people who tried to “stage a judicial coup” in Bangladesh.

In a statement after Tuesday’s verdict against Sinha, the minister said the former chief justice’s sentencing has proven that “no one is above the law” in the country.