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Dhaka: A Bangladesh court on Monday ordered to jail the head of the country's largest Islamic party, a day after his arrest on corruption charges, a defence lawyer said.
Metropolitan Magistrate Waliul Islam denied bail to Matiur Rahman Nizami, the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh chief and former industries minister, and sent him to Dhaka Central Jail pending his corruption trial, his lawyer Moshiur Alam told reporters outside the court.
Nizami was arrested and taken from his home late Sunday, hours after the High Court rejected his bail plea in a graft case that involves awarding two contracts for managing container terminals without proper bidding.
Also on Sunday, another Dhaka court jailed two other co-accused in the same graft case - former ministers M. Shamsul Islam and Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan.
All three suspects have denied the charges against them, their respective lawyers said. The three were senior members of ex-prime minister Khalida Zia's Cabinet in 2001-2006.
Zia, who is in detention facing several corruption charges, is also implicated in this latest graft case, along with her younger son, Arafat Rahman.
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