A former Bangladeshi interior minister was jailed for 17 years for illegal possession of a revolver and ammunition, a state prosecutor said. The gun and 25 bullets were found during raids on the home of Lutfozzaman Babar after he was arrested on separate charges of corruption.
The once-powerful minister is the latest high-profile victim of a campaign by the country's emergency government to clean up Bangladesh's notoriously corrupt and often violent political scene.
"He was sentenced to 10 years in jail for keeping a revolver illegally and another seven years for keeping 25 rounds of bullets illegally," state prosecutor Kabir Hossain said.
Babar served as a minister in the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government until October 2006, the end of the mandate after which fresh elections should have been held.
Opposition allegations of vote-rigging and months of street violence and strikes led to the cancellation of the polls and the introduction of an army-backed emergency government.
Among those detained in the Government's graft crackdown are two former prime ministers - BNP leader Khaleda Zia and Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed.
More than a dozen former ministers, law-makers and their family members have also already been sentenced to between five and 20 years in jail by fast-track courts. © 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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