Govt to check if bribe money used for JMB

The government will soon form a probe committee to investigate whether the money given by Siemens as bribe was used to fund the banned Islamist outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). "A probe committee would be formed in a week to investigate irregularities including the Siemens scam in the telecommunications sector during the tenure of BNP-led alliance government," Post and Telecommunications minister Raziuddin Ahmed Razu told reporters yesterday after a discussion.Bangladesh Mobile Phone Business Association organised the discussion at the city's Sonargaon Hotel to observe the World Telecommunications Day-2009. The probe committee will also investigate alleged irregularities and corruption during the previous BNP-Jamaat-led alliance government. The minister's announcement coincided with a feature run by a US-based news service site 'Frontline' indicating that former post and telecommunications minister Aminul Haque, allegedly involved in the Siemens scam, had a link to JMB responsible for a series of bomb blasts across the country on August 16, 2005.The report, however, said that there was no evidence to prove that the bribe offered by Siemens went to the JMB fund.Earlier Aminul was sentenced to 31 years in prison in 2007 for aiding and abetting JMB.The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on March 17 sued Arafat Rahman Koko, younger son of former premier Khaleda Zia for laundering money he had illegally taken from Siemens, a German industrial giant, a Chinese company and other sources in exchange for helping them get government contracts.The former prime minister's son received at least $1,80,000 (Tk 1.26 crore) as bribe in September 2005 for helping Siemens Bangladesh to win the contract to set up mobile network for state-run operator TeleTalk, according to sources.