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Download PDF Six British lawmakers yesterday demanded release of former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina on bail saying that she poses no ‘conceivable’ security risk or risk of attempting to evade justice as she has surrendered her passport.
Meanwhile, US Deputy Secretary of State John D Negroponte and US Congressman Joseph Crowley urged the government to follow due process of law so that ‘no one is deprived of justice’, New York-based news agency News World reports.
The British MPs from Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties, wrote a letter to a London-based daily The Times expressing their ‘grave concern’ on, what they termed, the ‘undignified’ manner of Hasina’s arrest.
“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,” the letter read.
“Sheikh Hasina must also be afforded a fair and impartial trial in the event so that this prosecution is pursued further,” the MPs added.
The British lawmakers said summoning Hasina to court on August 15, the death anniversary of her father, is ‘insensitive’.
They also found the delay in holding the next general elections at the end of 2008 as ‘unfortunate.’
They demanded restoration of ‘fundamental rights’.
The letter was signed by Anne Main, Simon Hughes, Harry Cohen, Charles Tannock, Baroness Ludford and peer Baroness Uddin.
News World news agency reported that Negroponte cautioned Bangladesh government not to deprive ‘anyone’ of receiving a ‘fair trial’ and the opportunity for self-defence.
He made the comments when newly appointed Bangladesh Ambassador in Washington Humayun Kabir called on him at the state department.
Negroponte said corruption is the main impediment to development and must be eliminated.
Congressman Crowley, also the co-chair of the Bangladesh Caucus in the US Congress, said the government should ‘behave decently’ with the politicians arrested in the ongoing anti-corruption crackdown.
“Allegations against a person does not mean that he or she is guilty,” Crowley said when he met a joint delegation of the Awami League’s US unit, Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee and the Hindu-Buddha Parishad in his office.
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