A Special Judge’s court yesterday sentenced fomxr President Hussain Muhammad Ershad to three years' simple imprisonment on charges of corruption and abuse of power, reports UNB.

The court found him guilty of criminal misconduct in the purchase of Japanese relief boats in 1988.

Additional Sessions and District Judge Jinat Ara also imposed a fine of Taka 10,000 on Ershad and. in default he will have to suffer another four months of imprisonment

The judge read out her 67-page verdict in the court adjacent to the Dhaka Central Jail where Ershad has been confined since April 1991.

The court, however, acquitted K Inoyama, a Japanese national, who was the lone co-accuscd in the case. Inoyama was the senior executive of Marubeni Corporation, a Japanese multinational company, involved in the boat deal.

The former president, already convicted in two other cases of corruption and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment appeared slightly per turbed after hearing the judgeme nt in the case in which he was the principal accused.

Clad in an off-white full-sleeve safari suit. Ershad told newsmen in the court that he would appeal against the judgement According to the prosecution charge, Ershad, when he was the President, misused his official position and violated government rules to procure more than 500 relief boats from Japan in 1988 when large parts of Bangladesh was swept by a devastating flood. The purchase was made under a 2.5 billion yen debt relief grant from Japan

As per the charge. Ershad. by misusing his offkial position, compelled the authorities concerned to opt for the quotation of second lowest bidder Marubeni Corporation of Japan, ignoring the lowest Bidder Kingsu Mataichi, also of Japan, in purchasing the boats. The deal caused the government exchequer to incur a kiss of about Tak/33 crore.

. The boat purchase case was instituted in 1993 and a total of 16 witnesses, inc luding two former ministers and some retired and in-service bureaucrats, were cross-examined.

Yesterday 's verdict came 10 days after a High Court Division bench acquitted Frsliad of the charge of possessing ilk-gal arms, setting aside tlx judgenxnt of a special tribunal which had sentenced him to 10 years’ im-prisixunenL