[JURIST] Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed [party profile; JURIST news archive] has been charged with another count of corruption relating to a bribe supposedly taken from a Bangladesh power company, Bangladesh police announced Sunday. Hasina is accused by Bangladesh's anti-corruption commission [governing statute, PDF] of taking 30 million taka (435,000 dollars) in 1997 and using the funds to buy land for the Bangabandhu Memorial Trust charity which she heads in honor of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ("Bangabandhu"), considered the founding father of Bangladesh. Hasina is already charged with five other counts of corruption and murder [JURIST reports], and is among some 150 leading Bangladeshis arrested by the new interim government since emergency rule was declared [JURIST report] in January.

Hasina was prime minister between 1996 and 2001 and is the the leader of the opposition Awami League [party website]. The interim government has also filed corruption charges against Hasina's rival, former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia [UN profile]. Scheduled elections in the country were indefinitely postponed in the wake of the emergency declaration. The country's powerful military backs the interim government. AFP has more.