SC clears bar on Hasina’s trial
in extortion case
Courtesy New Age 9/5/08
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The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday struck down the High Court’s verdict that had quashed the Tk 2.99 crore extortion case against detained former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The full bench of all the seven Appellate Division judges, headed by Chief Justice M Ruhul Amin, delivered the judgement, allowing the government’s appeal against the High Court’s verdict that was delivered on February 6.
Because of this judgement, any offence committed before the declaration of the state of emergency on January 11, 2007 can be tried under the Emergency Powers Rules. The High Court, in its verdict, had declared such trial proceedings illegal.
Thursday’s judgement particularly removed the bar on conducting trial proceedings against Hasina, also the Awami League president, in the extortion case filed by a power company boss, Azam J Chowdhury, which was quashed by the High Court.
The Appellate Division simultaneously scrapped a number of the High Court’s orders that stayed the proceedings in nine cases filed against detained former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s sons Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman, former minister Mirza Abbas, former state minister Amanullah Aman, former deputy minister Ruhul Quddus Talukdar Dulu, former BNP lawmaker Nasiruddin Ahmed and another person.
The court, however, asked all the parties in those cases to arrange the final hearing of the writ petitions that they had filed, challenging inclusion of their cases in the jurisdiction of the emergency rules, in the High Court.
Hasina’s counsel Rafique-ul Huq, instantly reacting to the verdict, said, ‘With this verdict, the coffin has started the final journey for the burial of the violated corpse of the higher judiciary, rule of law and human rights.’
The Supreme Court Bar Association’s president, Shafique Ahmed, told reporters, ‘We will file petitions in the same court, seeking review of the judgement, and decide our next course of action after consulting senior lawyers.’
Everything achieved so far has been lost and such a verdict is a veritable disaster for all concerned, lamented Rafique, adding that he had expected the Appellate Division to be more reasonable, but what had actually happened was a disaster.
‘We all knew that the Appellate Division might allow the government’s appeal, but had expected that the court might give a direction for holding the trial under the normal laws instead of the emergency rules,’ said Rafique.
This verdict has proved that the judiciary is failing to function in this country as per the Constitution and the legal processes, said Shafique.
‘The High Court delivered the verdict after hearing seven senior lawyers as amici curiae, and the Appellate Division just trashed it; the lawyers will never accept this judgement as a reference,’ he added.
The SCBA will felicitate neither the chief justice on his retirement nor the next chief justice on his assumption of office, he said.
On April 23, the SCBA announced the decision when the same bench of the Appellate Division struck down the ruling that upheld the High Court’s power to hear bail petitions in cases filed under the emergency rules.
However, additional attorney-general Salahuddin Ahmed, who had moved the government’s appeal, hailed the judgement, saying, ‘No case against high-profile corruption suspects can be successfully tried without placing it under the emergency rules.’
During the hearing of the appeal, Salahuddin argued that the High Court might have cancelled the placement of the trial of the case under the emergency rules, clearing the way for holding the trial under the Code of Criminal Procedure, but it had quashed the whole case, thus preventing the trial of the case under any law.
The High Court on February 6 handed down the verdict on purpose as it had quashed the extortion case, though Hasina had not sought quashment in her petition, he contended.
Hasina, in her writ petition, only wanted that the placement of the case under the Emergency Powers Rules should be declared illegal, but the High Court went too far and quashed the case, he said.
Rafique argued that the High Court rightly quashed the case, and observed that no offence committed before the declaration of the state of emergency could be tried under the emergency rules.
The Appellate Division on February 26 allowed the government to appeal against the High Court’s verdict and posted the hearing for March 16. The court accordingly started hearing the appeal on March 16 and concluded it on Tuesday after eight working days.
Staying the operation of the High Court’s verdict, the Appellate Division on February 26 also stayed the trial of the extortion case filed by the East Coast Trading Pvt Ltd’s managing director, Azam Jahangir Chowdhury, till the disposal of the appeal.
Security measures at the Supreme Court, and inside the court’s building, were tightened considerably before and after delivery of the verdict on Thursday. Security personnel frisked everybody passing through the entrances.
Azam filed the case with the Gulshan police on June 13, 2007, alleging that the former prime minister, aided by her expatriate sister Sheikh Rehana and cousin Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, also a former minister, had extorted Tk 2.99 crore from him for allowing the installation of a power plant in 2001. Hasina was arrested on July 16, 2007.
Hasina, Rehana and Selim were charged by the
The sessions court, in the makeshift courtroom in the Jatiya Sangsad complex, began the trial of the case on January 30 with the deposition by the complainant, Azam. The trial remains stalled because of the High Court’s verdict.
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