Graft charges at home, arrest in Qatar: Former Bangladesh Air Force chief held

Air chief marshal (retd) Sheikh Abdul Hannan of the Bangladesh Air Force was arrested in Qatar in connection with corruption charges against him in Bangladesh, an official in Dhaka said on Sunday. Akhtarul Islam, deputy director of Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), said Interpol had informed the anti-graft agency that Hannan was arrested by Qatari authorities on Thursday.

“We have been informed by Interpol that Qatar’s law enforcement agency detained him there on October 15,” Islam told reporters in Dhaka. According to Islam, Hannan is accused of accumulating assets worth more than Tk 3.28 crore beyond his known sources of income and conducting suspicious transactions totalling Tk 27.63 crore through six personal bank accounts.

Based on its findings, the ACC in July last year approved the filing of charges under the Anti-Corruption Commission Act, Money Laundering Prevention Act and Prevention of Corruption Act. The former air chief's wife is also an accused in the case. She allegedly accumulated assets worth more than Tk 1.91 crore beyond her known sources of income, with her husband’s assistance. The ACC identified suspicious transactions totalling Tk 1.18 crore across 32 bank accounts held in her name.

Investigators have traced Hannan’s alleged offshore wealth to Canada and Dubai and uncovered assets registered in the names of his children in three countries. In March, a Dhaka court ordered the seizure of income tax records belonging to Hannan and his wife following two separate applications by the ACC. According to the agency, Hannan managed to leave Bangladesh despite an active travel ban and several corruption cases against him. A court had also ordered the attachment of two apartments owned by the former air chief and the freezing of his bank accounts after the ACC accused him of accumulating wealth beyond his known sources of income.

Who is ACM (retd) Sheikh Abdul Hannan

Hannan was commissioned into the Bangladesh Air Force in 1984 as a general duty (GD) pilot. He assumed office as the force’s 16th Chief of Air Staff on June 12, 2021, and retired on June 11, 2024. As per media reports, former Bangladesh Navy chief Admiral Mohammad Nazmul Hassan also faces corruption cases and is currently abroad, although no court has imposed a travel ban on him. Both Hannan and Hassan were appointed as service chiefs during the tenure of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government. Sheikh Hasina resigned as PM and left Bangladesh in August 2024 amid student-led public protests against her government. Hannan completed his tenure under the Awami League government, while Hassan retired during the subsequent interim administration led by Muhammad Yunus.