Staff Reporter :
In a significant legal development, the High Court (HC) has acquitted controversial businessman and former Jubo League leader SM Golam Kibria Shamim commonly known as GK Shamim in a money laundering case, effectively overturning a 10-year prison sentence handed down by a lower court.
The verdict was delivered on Wednesday by a HC bench led by Justice ASM Abdul Mobin. The state has already announced its intention to challenge the acquittal in the Appellate Division.
Shamim, a prominent government contractor who came to public attention during the 2019 anti-casino crackdown for alleged tender manipulation and illegal arms possession, was initially convicted on 17 July 2023.
A Dhaka court had sentenced him to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment under the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012, in a case filed with Gulshan Police Station.
Alongside him, each of his personal bodyguards was sentenced to four years in prison.
The verdict, pronounced by Judge Mohammad Nazrul Islam of Dhaka’s Special Judge Court-10, also imposed a total fine of Tk 3,83,35,814.
According to the judgment, failure to pay the fine within 60 days would result in an additional one-year imprisonment for each of the convicts. All eight were taken into custody immediately after the ruling.
In a strongly worded observation, the trial court had commented, “Arms dealers, tender manipulators, and money launderers are devoid of principles.
Though they may exploit ideology, they do not uphold it. They rapidly amass mountains of illicit wealth, obstructing the nation’s development and undermining the economy.
They are enemies of the state and the people and must be collectively resisted in the interest of national progress.”
Following his conviction, Shamim filed an appeal with the High Court, leading to today’s ruling that has now cleared him of all charges in the case.
