DHAKA, June 22: A former Bangladesh health minister has confessed to sharing extorted money with ex-premier Sheikh Hasina Wajed, while another former minister has been jailed for 13 years by an anti-corruption court.

Amanullah Aman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the labour and employment minister in the last government, was awarded 10-year imprisonment for amassing illegal earnings and three years, to be served consecutively, for failing to disclose information about his financial affairs.

The court also sentenced Mr Aman’s wife Sabera to three years in jail, said police Inspector Saiful Islam. “The judge ordered the authorities to confiscate their property,” he said. The Daily Star newspaper said former health minister Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim of Awami League had told a court here in a statement that he had given a portion of 30 million taka received from a power company to Ms Wajed during her 1996-2001 rule.

Mr Selim and Ms Wajed, who are cousins, are both accused in the case.

The former prime minister has denied any wrongdoing and vowed to clear her name.Mr Selim’s lawyers had said on Wednesday that they considered his court statement unlawful as he had been given insufficient time to think it over.—AFP