Bangladesh's former textiles and jute minister Shajahan Siraj was sent to jail on Tuesday in a tax evasion case, in which he was previously sentenced to eight years.

A special court in Bangladesh's capital city Dhaka sent Siraj to jail after he appeared before the court and sought bail in this case on Tuesday, public prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol said.

He said, on Aug. 30, 2007 the court sentenced Siraj to eight years in prison on tax evasion charge. The court also fined him 200,000 taka (about 2,857 U.S. dollars).

However, Siraj's lawyer Omar Sadat said, "We'll appeal to the higher court against this ruling."

Sadat said Siraj was a victim of the country's nasty politics and it was to tarnish his image.

Siraj, a senior leader of the main opposition party Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), served as forest and environment minister and then textile and jute minister of the BNP-led four-party alliance government from 2001 to 2006.

On April 22, 2008, Siraj was also sentenced to 13 years for amassing assets illegally and concealing wealth information by another special court in Dhaka.

Source: Xinhua