Bangladesh News

A vacation bench of the High Court (HC) yesterday felt embarrassed to hear a petition filed by Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina, now abroad on parole, seeking stay on the proceedings of the MiG-29 war plane purchase corruption case.

The HC bench comprised of justices Mirza Hussain Haider and Mamnoon Rahman was set for hearing the petition but one of the judges felt embarrassed to hear it.

Hasina’s counsels then requested the chief justice to constitute another bench for hearing.

At their request Chief Justice MM Ruhul Amin sent the petition to the bench of justices AFM Abdur Rahman and SM Emdadul Hoque for hearing the petition today.

Hasina’s counsel barrister Shafique Ahmed told newsmen that the HC bench in its order did not mention the reason for the judges’ embarrassment.

“Judges can feel embarrassed to hear a petition for many reasons, for example, if a judge finds that he was once the lawyer for an accused who is now a petitioner to his bench,” he said.

Barrister Shafique said they would file writ petitions on behalf of Hasina with the HC next week for bail in the Niko and barge-mounted power plant corruption cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission and in the extortion case filed by businessman Noor Ali.

Hasina filed the petition seeking stay on the proceedings of the MiG-29 war plane purchase corruption case after filing a writ petition with the HC challenging the legality of the initiation and continuation of the case.

Now defunct Bureau of Anti-corruption (Bac) filed the case with Tejgaon Police Station during the last term of the BNP-led alliance government, accusing seven individuals.

According to the case statement, the purchase of eight MiG-29 fighter jets during the tenure of the Awami League government when Hasina was the prime minister caused a loss of Tk 700 crore to the state exchequer.

On December 11, 2001, Bac Inspector Abdullah Al Zahid submitted the charge sheet of the case to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court of Dhaka, showing 40 persons as prosecution witnesses.

The six other accused in the case are late army chief Gen (retd) Mustafizur Rahman, former air force chief Jamaluddin Ahmed, former defence secretary Syed Yusuf Hossain, Air Commodore (retd) Mirza Akhter Maruf, former joint secretary Mohammad Hossain Serniabat and Unique Group Managing Director Noor Ali.

Names of Brig Gen (retd) Iftekhar-Ul-Bashar and former deputy secretary Hasan Mahmood Delwar were dropped from the case because of insufficient evidence. Gen (retd) Mustafiz, Mirza Akhter, Hossain Serniabat and Noor Ali were implicated in the case after investigators found proof of their involvement in the alleged corruption.