The eldest son of former Bangladeshi prime minister Khaleda Zia was formally charged Monday with taking kickbacks to hush up a murder allegedly involving the son of a tycoon, a government lawyer said. Tareque Rahman, heir apparent of his mother Khaleda Zia, faces a maximum three years in jail if convicted in the murder case, special anti-graft prosecutor Shamim Ahsan said.
"The court today has formally charged Tareque, ex-minister Lutfuzzaman Babar and six others for taking kickbacks from one of the country's top tycoons to drop his son's name from a murder case," Ahsan said.
Tareque has been charged with receiving 10 million taka (147,726 dollars) from Ahmed Akbar Sobhan, the owner of top realtor Basundhara Group, whose son is the prime suspect in the 2006 murder of a group director, he said, adding that the trial would begin on July 24. Babar, who was the home minister in Bangladesh's most recently elected government, led by Zia, has been charged with taking 200 million taka from Sobhan, who is also charged in the case.