Former state minister for communications Salahuddin Ahmed was sentenced to 13 years' rigorous imprisonment (RI) on two counts in a corruption case yesterday.
Meantime, a Dhaka court yesterday jailed detained former BNP lawmaker MAH Salim alias Silver Salim for five years' RI on charge of extorting Tk 10 lakh from a construction firm owner in 2003.
Judge AKM Arifur Rahman of Special Court-10 also fined the detained ex-state minister Tk 2 crore, defaulting on which will hand him one more year in jail.
His wife and co-accused Hasina Ahmed was acquitted on all charges.
Salahuddin was jailed for 10 years for amassing wealth illegally and for three years for hiding information about his wealth in the statement he submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
The court ordered the authorities concerned to confiscate his illegally earned assets.
ACC Deputy Director Shafiqul Islam lodged the case with Gulshan Police Station on June 14 last year, stating that Salahuddin made a fortune of Tk 4.05 crore through illegal means and concealed information on his wealth worth Tk 29.02 lakh.
His wife was indicted for abetting her husband in the said offences.
Earlier on January 10 this year, Salahuddin was given a seven-year jail sentence for taking Tk 1 crore in bribe. The court confiscated the money.
Meantime, Judge Mohammad Shafiul Azam at the Sixth Assistant Sessions Judge's Court delivered the judgment against MAH Salim and fined him Tk 50,000, defaulting on which will earn him two more months in jail.
Earlier, the prosecution and the defence had completed arguments and the court recorded the statements of 18 prosecution witnesses.
The ex-Bagerhat lawmaker, who is also the chairman of private television station Channel i, was given seven years' RI late last month in another case filed for extorting Tk 12 lakh from the same person in the same year.
Zahidul Islam Faruq, proprietor of Faruq Construction Firm Ltd, filed the two cases against Salim with Gulshan Police Station on June 10 last year, stating that the former MP had demanded Tk 50 lakh and Tk 12 lakh from him as he won a work order for a LGED project.
He said he had no option but to give in to the then lawmaker's mounting pressure and paid him cheques for Tk 10 lakh and Tk 12 lakh.
Salim, also the former president of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira), was arrested on March 7 last year under Section 16(2) of the Emergency Power Rules.
He has since been accused in nine criminal cases filed in Bagerhat while two extortion, one tax evasion and one graft cases have been filed against him with Gulshan Police Station in the city.