DHAKA: The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is going to take a legal process to bring back US $25 million that death row convict Mir Quasem sent to a lobbyist firm in USA.
The anti-graft body has already sent a ‘Mutual Legal Assistance Request (MLAR)’ to the US government through the attorney general of Bangladesh in this regard to know the whereabouts of the money.
ACC Chairman Badiuzzaman on Monday morning told banglanews: “We recently have sent an MLAR to US. Many things will be known from the US response.”
Sources said ACC started looking into the matter in 2012 after receiving an allegation that said Jamaat leader Mir Quasem Ali sent US $25 million (Tk 2.75 crore) to US lobbyist farm Cassidy and Associates to foil the trial against war crimes.
The ACC deputy director Nur Hossain investigated into the matter. He quizzed Quasem in the jail gate on August 25 in 2012 by the permission of the court but he denied the allegation.
But the investigation process became slow as Nur had been transferred to Bogra.
The anti-graft commission gave recently the task to the ACC deputy director Farid Uddin Patwari. He sent a MLAR to the USA.
The investigation team seized the copy of the contract between Quasem for war criminals and Andrew J Camiros on behalf of Cassidy and money receipt.
After inking the agreement, Quasem wrote a letter to Cassidy that said they were scheduled to come on October in 2010. They were planned to persuade senators, congressmen and administrator for South Asian affairs.
After that, British lawyer Tomy Cadman came to Bangladesh to support war crimes accused Jamaat-e-Islami’s Nayeb-e-Ameer Delwar Hossain Sayedee.
According to the deal, the American ‘law’ firm agreed to work for six month costing $25 million.
Mir Quasem was the member of the highest policy forum of Jamaat-e-Islami ‘Majlis-e-Sura’. He was also the highest donor of the party.
He has huge apartments, shopping mall and ships. He is one of the founders of Islami Bank and Islami Bank Hospital.
Quasem is the chairman of private TV channel Diganta. He also formed Ibne Sinha and Rabita Al Islami Trust.
He was born at Chala Village of Harirampur upazila in Manikganj district on December 31, 1952.
He worked for Islami Chhatra Sangha (now Islami Chhatra Shibir), a student wing if Jamaat-e-Islami and Al Badar, during the liberation war in 1971.
However, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) awarded death penalty to him on November 2. Now, he is kept in Kashimpur Jail in Gazipur.
BDST: 1846 HRS, NOV 10, 2014
