Chief_Adviser
Number of posts : 615
Age : 41
City/Town : in ur heart .
Registration date : 2008-06-10
 |  Subject: HC halts MiG-29s trial against Hasina....................  Thu Sep 18, 2008 11:32 am | |
|  The High Court has halted trial of MiG-29s purchase graft case against former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and others for three months, a lawyer said.
The vacation bench of justices AFM Abdur Rahman and SM Emdadul Haque on Thursday ordered the freeze as Hasina challenged the legality of the trial court's faming charges in the case.
It also asked the government and the Anticorruption Commission to explain in three weeks why the charge-framing would not be declared illegal.
Barrister Shafik Ahmed, lawyer for Hasina, told reporters after the ruling petitions seeking Hasina's release on bail in three other corruption cases – barge-mounted power plant case, Niko case and Nur Ali case – would be filed on Sunday.
In the hearing, the lawyer said that according to CrPc the trial should start in presence of the accused, who should be given the opportunity to plead guilty or innocent.
But the Special Judge's Court started trial on Aug 20 in absence of Hasina, Shafik said.
Hasina's lawyers appealed to the trial court not to frame charges in her absence, as she was staying abroad for medical treatment in a government order.
The trial court was aware of the matter, as it exempted the Awami League president from court appearance, the High Court heard.
Additional attorney general Monsur Habib said in the hearing that another writ petition challenging the legality of MiG-29s graft case was pending with the High Court.
He argued that the writ petition challenging the legality of the same case could not be filed.
On Wednesday, a High Court judge felt embarrassed to hear the appeal filed by Hasina contesting the case's legality.
One of the judges in the bench of Justice Mirza Hossain Haider and Justice Mamnun Rahman declined to hear the petition citing embarrassment as being the reason.
Hasina filed the writ appeal challenging the charge framing in the MiG-29s case on Sept 14.
The currently extinct Anticorruption Bureau filed the case with Tejgaon Police Station on Dec 11, 2001 against five persons including Hasina.
It accused them of resorting to corrupt practices in the purchase of eight Russian-made advanced MiG-29 combat jet fighters.
A High Court bench on Sept 6, 2007 rejected Hasina's appeal to set aside the case.
On March 18, the Supreme Court rejected her appeal challenging the High Court order.
On August 20, charges were pressed against Hasina and other accused in the case. | |
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