The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed a High Court order that had sentenced BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman to seven years jail in a money laundering case.

The full bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed passed the order after hearing a petition.

Barrister Kaisar Kamal and Barrister Sheikh Mohammad Zakir Hossain stood for the petitioner while Advocate Asif Hasan represented the Anti-Corruption Commission.

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Barrister Kaisar Kamal said the Appellate Division approve to move for a leave-to-appeal against the HC order and asked to submit the brief text of the verdict to the ACC within December 31.

The court also stayed the lower court order that had sentenced businessperson Gias Uddin Mamun in the same case.

ACC filed the case with Cantonment Police Station on October 26, 2009 and police submitted chargesheet against Tarique and Mamun on July 6, 2010.

Court pressed charges against them on August 8, 2011.

According to the case statement, Mamun siphoned off Tk 20,41,25,843 from Khadiza Islam, chairman of a construction company limited in the name of installing 80 MW power plant in Tongi.

Mamun deposited the money to his bank account in Singapore and Tarique spent Tk 3.78 crore from the money.

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On November 17, 2013, a lower court convicted Tarique and sentenced him to seven years of  jail in the case.

The court also fined Mamun Tk 40 crore and asked the government to confiscate the money which was laundered to Singapore.

On December 5, 2013, the ACC filed an appeal on July 21, 2016.

The High Court sentenced Tarique to seven years imprisonment and fined him Tk 20 crore in the case.

It also upheld the lower order sentencing seven-year jail to Mamun.