The High Court in a landmark verdict Monday granted bail to Sheikh Hasina in an extortion case. But the chance for the detained former prime minister to get freedom from jail anytime soon is slim as the police Sunday showed her arrested in another extortion case.
The High Court asked the government to take the extortion case off the reach of emergency powers rules. The court also asked the government to explain in two weeks why the inclusion of the case in the emergency powers rules would not be declared illegal.
In instant reaction, Hasina’s chief counsel barrister Rafique-ul-Huq told reporters: “Sheikh Hasina got justice. She will get justice in future too.”
Detained Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina Sunday challenged in the High Court the government’s decision to take an extortion case against her under the cover of emergency powers rules. Hasina’s attorney barrister Rafique-ul Huq filed a writ appeal with the High Court bench of Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Muminur Rahman and Justice Jubaer Rahman Chowdhury at . The court will hear the appeal Monday. “I took permission from the court in the morning to file the writ petition,” the lawyer told bdnews24.com. Hasina’s lawyers said the emergency powers rules cannot cover the alleged incident that had taken place before the state of emergency was clamped. According to the writ petition, inclusion of the extortion case against Hasina in the emergency powers rules was illegal. “She (Hasina) has been named in the FIR with some malafide motive…to harass and humiliate her,” the petition alleged. “The case was approved under the emergency powers rules,” the petition said, adding it was an “illegal approval”. The approval has been given “arbitrarily and without lawful authority”, it said. Updates with more details Sunday, July 29, 2007
AL dissidents prefer parley with govt to free Hasina
Conformists opt for going ahead with legal fight
Ofiul Hasnat Ruhin
Reform-enthusiasts in Awami League want the party to negotiate with
the interim government to free party president Sheikh Hasina, while
conformists opt for waiting until the legal battle ends, insiders
said.
The dissidents believe that establishing a `positive communication’
with the interim government is essential to overcome the present
crisis which may help the party get its leader freed, but
conformists want to complete the legal fight before mapping out next
strategy, sources in both the camps said.
`We are not thinking about negotiation with the government to get
Hasina freed. We will go ahead with legal battle to prove the case
filed against her is She said that the lawyers would challenge the
case on two counts—filing extortion charge against Hasina and
bringing the case under Emergency Powers Act.
Shahara also said that the case was not filed under the emergency
act when Sheikh Hasina was taken to the court after her arrest on
July 16 and it was brought under the emergency act later at the
directive of the home ministry.
She said the lawyers believed that the case could not be sustained
when it would be challenged in the higher court. So I think there is
no need to appeal for quashing the case.
The AL leader said that being afraid of losing the legal battle the
government had tried to delay returning the power of attorney from
Hasina.
`We sent the power of attorney for Sheikh Hasina’s signature on July
20 but got the copy after eight days,’ she said, adding that the AL
chief’s lawyer Tawfiq Newaz received the signed copy Saturday
afternoon.
Shahara said that a six-member panel of lawyers led by Rafiqul Haque
would move with the writ petition.
After getting the signed copy of the power of attorney, the lawyers
met the acting AL president, Zillur Rahman, at his residence and
reviewed the legal aspects of the `extortion’ case.
AL presidium member Ataur Rahman Kaiser, Shahara Khatun, Rahmat Ali,
Dipu Moni and Tawfiq Newaz were present, among others, in the
informal meeting
Detained Awami League (AL) President Sheikh Hasina is scared for her
life and said yesterday her arrest is part of a larger conspiracy to
eliminate Bangabandhu’s family.
“Conspirators want to complete their 1975 plot by eliminating me,”
Advocate Tawfique Newaz, one of the counsels for Hasina, quoted her
as saying.
Talking to newsmen after meeting Hasina at the special jail,
Tawfique said she is passing her days in apprehension that ‘criminal
justice system’ would not work in the extortion case against her,
and she would not get justice.
He quoted Hasina as saying, “System of criminal justice will not
work here as it failed in 1975 after the killing of Bangabandhu and
most of his family members.”
The counsel entered the special jail on the Jatiya Sangsad compound
at 2:40pm and discussed with the former prime minister the case
against her for over one and a half hours.
On the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) notice for submitting
Hasina’s wealth statement, he said the authorities are playing a
double standard. “Authorities seized all papers and documents from
Hasina’s residence and then the ACC asked her to submit wealth
statement within seven days …What the ACC did is not consistent
with due process.”
Through her counsels, Hasina once again alleged that the government
has planned to keep her away from election by convicting her in
false cases. She urged the people to be united to uphold their
constitutional rights.
The AL chief accused the government of violating the constitution.
The government is making new laws which are contrary to the
constitution, and even a state of emergency does not support such
laws.
She asked her counsels to file writ petition against her arrest and
urged the people to protest any illegal activities of the government.
FAMILY MEMBERS MEET HER
Family members and relatives yesterday visited Hasina for the first
time at the special jail.
Sheikh Razia Naser, Sheikh Khadiza Khanam, Sheikh Shelly Jaman,
Sahana Yasmin Shampa and Farmina Khanam entered the special jail at
4:25pm and came out at 6:00 pm.
They however avoided the press.
AL LEADERS VISIT WAZED MIAH
AL leaders yesterday visited ailing nuclear scientist Dr Wazed Miah,
husband of Hasina, at Square Hospital in the capital.
They demanded immediate release of the AL chief, saying she should
now stay beside her husband.
The government will have to bear all responsibility of the
consequences of not allowing Hasina to look after her husband in his
present health condition, they said.
The AL leaders who visited Dr Wazed included Sajeda Chowdhury, Abdul
Matin Khosru, Advocate Sahara Khatun, Dr Mostafa Jalal Mohiuddin and
AKM Jahangir Hossain.
“Condition of Dr Wazed is not good,” Sajeda told reporters later.
Khosru said although the present government is a non-partisan one,
it is behaving cruelly.
Dr Wazed is suffering from heart problems, diabetes and high blood
pressure. He was shifted to Square Hospital from Bangladesh Medical
College Hospital on Thursday night.
Sir, Bangladesh, a strategic country of 150 million people, has a proud history of progress under secular democracy since its independence in 1971, punctuated by regrettable periods of regression under authoritarian military rule. We are therefore gravely concerned about the undignified arrest this week of the former Prime Minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina. She was seized in the early hours of July 16 and imprisoned under emergency powers that appear to deny her basic legal rights, including legal representation.
Sheikh Hasina returned voluntarily to her homeland in early May to answer accusations of extortion and murder laid against her, even though the Government sought actively to keep her in exile while transiting through London after a family visit to the US. There are widespread allegations that her arrest is politically motivated before the promised elections now unfortunately delayed to 2008 by the caretaker Government. It is also deeply insensitive that she has been summoned to appear before a criminal court on August 15, which is the 32nd anniversary of the assassination of her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who founded the modern Bangladeshi state along with 15 other members of her family.
We call upon the authorities to release her on bail so that she can prepare her defence. She has already surrendered her passport and poses no conceivable security risk or risk of attempting to evade justice. Sheikh Hasina must also be afforded a fair and impartial trial in the event that this prosecution is pursued further.
When the caretaker Government was formed earlier this year we all had high expectations that it would follow through on its promises of rapid, free and fair elections, and enable a restoration of the rule of law with full respect for fundamental human rights.
We are friends of a free and democratic Bangladesh and now urge the caretaker Government to live up to its political and moral obligations.
