Money Laundering: Top court asks Morshed Khan, wife, son to surrender

The High Court yesterday directed former BNP foreign minister M Morshed Khan, his wife Nasrin Khan and their son Faisal Morshed Khan to surrender before a court in six weeks in a money laundering case.

The HC, however, asked the lower court to grant them bail in the case after their surrender.

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Delivering a verdict on a revision petition filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the HC extended till March 31 next year its earlier order of freezing the bank accounts of Morshed, his wife and son with the Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong.

The bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice JBM Hassan also permitted the ACC to further investigate the money laundering case against them.

ACC counsel Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star that Morshed, Nasrin and Faisal have to surrender before the trial court in six weeks after receiving the HC order.

The HC has ordered them to surrender as the case against them has been revived and they have to remain with the purview of the court, he added.

The lawyer further said the ACC filed the money laundering case against Morshed, Nasrin and Faisal in 2013 and submitted a final report to the lower court in July last year saying that they did not launder money.

The lower court on April 15 this year accepted the final report and exempted the three from the money laundering charge.

The Hong Kong police, who froze their bank accounts in 2008 under an administrative order, have meanwhile sent a letter to the ACC saying they would open the accounts if there were no legal steps against them in connection with the case, the ACC lawyer said.

The ACC then submitted two petitions to a Dhaka court to revive the case and seek permission to reinvestigate the case.

The Dhaka court on June 2 rejected the petitions, he said, adding that the commission on June 5 moved the revision petition before the HC challenging the lower court orders.

The HC on June 5 asked the authorities concerned to freeze the bank accounts of Morshed, his wife and their son with the Hong Kong bank and also asked them to restrain from transferring 16 million Hong Kong dollars from the bank till further orders, he added.

The HC on September 1 fixed November 9 for delivering its verdict on the revision petition.