[JURIST] A judge in Bangladesh [JURIST news archive] sentenced Wadud Bhuiyan, a former lawmaker in the country, to 20 years in jail Sunday for acquiring land and property through corruption and abuse of power. The judge also ordered Bhuiyan, a member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party [Wikipedia backgrounder], who served in parliament from 2001 to 2006, to hand over his illegally obtained assets, worth nearly $1 million. Bhuiyan's lawyer said he plans to appeal the ruling. AP has more.

Last week, Bangladeshi authorities arrested [JURIST report] former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed [Wikipedia profile] following a raid on her home, accusing Hasina of extorting approximately $1.16 million from two businessmen. The Bangladeshi interim emergency government [JURIST report], which came to power in January with the backing of the military, has used its anti-corruption campaign [BBC Q&A; JURIST news archive] to justify the declaration of a state of emergency [JURIST report] allowing detention without warrants or specific charges. The emergency government has also filed corruption charges against Hasina's rival, former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia [UN profile] and jailed a UN human rights expert [JURIST report] who had been prevented from traveling to Geneva to deliver a report on human trafficking.

[JURIST] A lawyer for former Saddam Hussein-era deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] said Saturday that Aziz was taken to a US military hospital in Balad this week after he fainted several times in the US-run detention facility, where he is being held, near Baghdad airport. Aziz, who surrendered to US forces in 2003, has complained of health problems [JURIST report] throughout his detention. He was taken to the hospital the day before he was due in court for questioning about his alleged in the killing of Muslim clerics after the 1991 war. Aziz has said he had no involvement in the murders. AP has more.

In March, Aziz was brought before the Iraqi High Tribunal [official website] to testify against six defendants accused of genocide in the Anfal trial [BBC trial timeline]. He instead denied [JURIST report] that Hussein's government had ever carried out any such attacks.

[JURIST] Former Eagle Global Logistics (EGL) [corporate website] executive Kevin Andre Smoot pleaded guilty Friday in US District Court to making a false statement and violating the Anti-Kickback Act [text]. Last year, EGL, a Houston-based company hired by Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) to ship military cargo to Iraq, paid the government $4 million [press release; JURIST report] to settle potential claims under the False Claims Act [text] that it inflated invoices for Iraq military cargo shipments. EGL was accused of charging a "war risk surcharge" on military shipments from Dubai, United Arab Emirates to Iraq between November 2003 and July 2004.

In February 2006, Christopher Joseph Cahill, another former EGL executive, pleaded guilty to inflating the invoices by more than $1 million in a bid to cover the surcharges earlier that year. Smoot, the managing director of EGL's freight-forwarding station in Houston, faces up to 15 years in prison and $500,000 in fines. AP has more.