MP Shahid sentenced to four years on bribery charges

Bangladesh's member of parliament (Lakshmipur-2) Md Shahid Islam alias Papul, arrested in a sensational human trafficking and money laundering case, has been sentenced to four years imprisonment in Kuwait.

On Thursday, Kuwaiti criminal court counselor Abdullah Al-Othman delivered the verdict, sentencing the MP for bribery. He was also fined 1.9 million Kuwait dinars (Tk 531 million).

The court's verdict on the charges of human trafficking and money laundering against him, however, could not be ascertained.

Sources in Kuwait told Prothom Alo that though Shahid Islam faces charges of human trafficking and money laundering, on Thursday he was sentenced on charges of giving bribes to various quarters in Kuwait.

When the Bangladesh embassy in Kuwait was contacted on Friday morning, it was learnt that the oil-rich country has still not informed Bangladesh of the matter officially.

This is for the first time in Bangladesh's history that any member of parliament has been jailed overseas on criminal charges.

Earlier on 6 June last year, Shahid Islam was arrested from his residence in Kuwait. This Bangladesh lawmaker was sentenced seven and a half months after being detained in Kuwait and three and a half months after the trial began.

The verdict passed on Thursday coincided with the publication of Transparency International's 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index. Bangladesh ranked 12 among the most corrupt countries, falling by two slots.

The Kuwaiti court also sentenced to four years' imprisonment Sheikh Mazen Al Jarrah, the expelled undersecretary of the interior ministry and two other officials who aided and abetted in the deals, Hassan Al Khader and Nawaf Al-Mutairi. Like Shahid, the three convicted Kuwait nationals were fined 1.9 million dinars each. However, the court acquitted two Kuwaiti MPs, Saadoun Hammad Al-Otaibi and Salah Khurshid, of charges in the same case.

Shahid is the managing director and CEO of Marafie Kuwaitia Group, a labour and security contracting company registered in Kuwait. In the charges brought against him, it was said that he had taken large payments from workers of Bangladesh, promising them employment in Kuwait. However, it was alleged, they were not given the jobs or wages he had promised. He had initially denied these allegations outright. Later, however, after being interrogated by Kuwaiti intelligence and being faced with evidence and his Kuwaiti associates, he admitted to these charges.

He admitted that he had paid millions of dollars to politicians and government officials in Kuwait to get work contracts and to appoint workers from Bangladesh.

When asked about Bangladeshi MP Shahid's being sentenced in Kuwait, Jatiya Sangsad (parliament) speaker Shireen Sharmin Chaudhury on Thursday told Prothom Alo, "Kuwait is yet to officially inform us about the arrest or sentencing of the Lakshmipur-2 independent MP Shahid Islam. I've learnt about his from the media. Once we receive the information officially, legal action will be taken in keeping with the parliamentary rules of procedure and the constitution."

According to Rule 172 of the parliamentary rules of procedure, "When a member is arrested on criminal charge or for a criminal offence or is sentenced to imprisonment by a court, or is detained under an executive order, the committing judge, magistrate, or executive authority, as the case may be, shall immediately intimate such fact to the Speaker indicating the reasons for the arrest, detention or imprisonment of the member."

Then according to Rule 176, the Speaker will read this out in parliament in in session or it will be circulated for the information of the members.

In the meantime, a Dhaka court has ordered that 670 bank accounts of six persons, including MP Shahid, be frozen in two cases for amassing wealth outside of known means of income and money laundering. Of these, 617 bank accounts are in the name of the MP and his wife, who is also a MP from reserved seat.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) filed human trafficking and money laundering charges against six persons including Shahid on 22 December last year. The accused include Shahid's daughter, brother and sister-in-law.

Earlier on 11 November, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had filed a case against Shahid and his wife on human trafficking charges.

Winning in Lakshmipur-2 seat in the 2018 election, Shahid Islam amassed wealth overnight. The local people said that in 1989 Shahid had gone to Kuwait as a labour supervisor for a cleaning company. He was more or less penniless at the time. He had to return in 1990 when Iraq invaded Kuwait but returned when things went back to normal. He then began sending people from various areas of Lakshmipur and Cumilla to Kuwait, with assurances of jobs.

Shahid made huge amounts of money by trafficking people of Kuwait and also through his visa business. He even used his money to make wife Selina Islam an MP from the reserved seats for women.

It was an open secret that in the 2018 general election, Shahid used his money to push the Awami-League-led Mahajote ('grand alliance') candidate, Jatiya Party's Mohammad Noman, out of the fray in Lakshmipur. He suddenly appeared on the scene as candidate and his winning the election came as a surprise. Even as an independent candidate, he had been confident of winning. His wife became an independent candidate in the women's quota. It is said that he spent over Tk 500 million (Tk 50 crore) to clinch the parliamentary seats for himself and his wife.

President of Lakshmipur unit of Shushaner Jonno Nagorik (Shujan) Kamal Hossain said that when the country lacks good governance, unscrupulous businessmen and dishonest persons use their wealth to become people's representatives. It is extremely shameful for the country that a lawmaker has been sentenced to imprisonment abroad.

In a similar reaction, Raipur upazila Awami League president, Mamunur Rashid, told Prothom Alo, "I have heard about the sentence. This is very unfortunate for the people of our Lakshmipur-2 (Raipur) constituency. Before he became an MP, we had no idea that he was involved in all these misdeeds in Kuwait."

According to Bangladesh's constitution, an MP will lose his seat in parliament if takes the citizenship of a foreign country or pledges his loyalty to a foreign state, if proven guilty of criminal offence due to moral turpitude and is sentenced to not less than two years imprisonment.

Supreme Court lawyer Shahdeen Malik on Thursday night told Prothom Alo, the election commission decides on whether a person qualifies to be an MP or loses that qualification. And according to the constitution, if anyone is sentenced to two years' imprisonment, there is provision to cancel his seat in parliament. The Kuwait court has awarded Shahid Islam a four-year jail sentence. So this constitutional provision can apply to him.

* This report appeared in the print and online editions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ayesha Kabir