Truth Commission sets Sep 1 deadline for graft suspects

By Anisur Rahman
Dhaka, Aug 9 (PTI)Bangladesh's newly set up anti-graft
panel that allows accused to escape trial and jail term if
they plead guilty and surrender their ill-gotten wealth has
set a September one deadline for them to declare their assets.

"Any person intending to disclose voluntarily the
information (regarding his corruption) can file applications
to the commission by September 1," the Truth and
Accountability Commission (TAC) said in a statement Thursday
evening, a week after it was formed by the country's
military-backed government.

The panel is aimed at disposing off hundreds of pending
graft cases filed after the interim government launched a
massive anti-corruption drive soon after its installation in
January last year following imposition of a state of emergency
by President Iajuddin Ahamed.

The statement aid that the persons concerned could also
file petitions seeking secrecy of the information they would
provide while asking for the body's intervention to evade
trial under Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.P.C.).

It said emergency-ruled Bangladesh's powerful graft
watchdog Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the army-led task
forces or trial courts too could refer corruption cases to
TAC.

"The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been
constituted... for quick disposal of graft related crimes in
an alternative mechanism against the backdrop of uncontrolled
and massive corruptions in all spheres of the statecraft and
society affecting normal economic growth, democracy and rule
of law," the statement said.

According to the ordinance's provisions, anybody already
convicted in a graft case with a sentence of two years or less
can plead for leniency if he confesses and returns any illegal
earnings within a timeframe.

But the government earlier said those who "crossed some
sort of threshold", would not be allowed for appearing before
the Commission.

Meanwhile, the powerful graft watchdog Anti-Corruption
Commission (ACC) has decided to expedite its anti-bribery
campaign using "trap method" at field level.

"The commission has taken the decision following reports
of different studies and information from public that most of
the incidents of corruption at field level are related to
bribery," ACC spokesman Colonel Hanif Iqbal told reporters.

He said the commission in principle has also decided to
offer "attractive awards" to persons providing information on
bribery or helping arrest of corrupt people red handed.

The government's campaign witnessed detention or
imprisonment of nearly 200 high-profile people including two
former prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and her arch-rival
Khaleda Zia.

Awami League chief Hasina was released on bail last month
and allowed to go abroad for "treatment" by the government
which has promised to hold elections in December. PTI AR