DHAKA: Bangladesh’s exiled opposition leader was sentenced in absentia to nine years jail for corruption on Wednesday, lawyers said, triggering protests from hundreds of supporters who called the trial politically motivated.

Tarique Rahman, 55, acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was handed the nine-year sentence and his wife, Zubaida Rahman, was given three years, Anti-Corruption Commission lawyer Khushid Alam Khan told AFP.