Process underway to bring Tarique back: Minister

The government has sent several letters to the British authorities concerned as part of its ongoing process to bring convicted BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman back home from London.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali came up with the disclosure at a press conference at his ministry today.

The press meet was arranged on the two-day 45th session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers (OIC-CFM) scheduled to begin on Saturday at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in the capital.

"The process of writing letters (to British authorities) is going on. More than a letter has already been sent in this regard," he said.

The minister said they are taking further steps and writing letters based on the responses from the British government.

The return of the BNP acting chairman from the UK has come in the limelight following State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam's assertion that Tarique handed over his passport to the British Home Office four years ago.

Later, BNP recognised that Tarique Rahman submitted his passport to the British Home Office as he got political asylum there.

On June 2, 2014, the British Home Office with a forwarding letter handed over passports of Tarique Rahman, his wife and daughter to the Bangladesh High Commission, London as they surrendered those to the Home Office.

Tarique, facing over a dozen of cases, was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment and fined Tk 20 crore by the High Court in a money laundering case in 2016.

He was also convicted along with his mother BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case where he was sentenced to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment and fined Tk 2.10 crore.