Hasina case verdict

Staff Correspondent

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Tuesday held back for a week the government's petition seeking stay on the execution of the High Court verdict that quashed the extortion case against Sheikh Hasina.

The full court of all the seven judges of the Appellate Division, headed by the chief justice, M Ruhul Amin, also asked the government to file a regular petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdict by February 19.

Shafique Ahmed, the counsel of the detained former prime minister, Haisna, also the Awami League chief, told reporters that the Appellate Division did not stay the High Court verdict.

The High Court earlier quashed the Tk 2.99 crore extortion case against Hasina and declared illegal the government's action in placing the trial in the case under the Emergency Powers Rules.

After the Appellate Division order, the High Court verdict that quashed the entire trial proceedings of the Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge's court relocated to the high-security Jatiya Sangsad complex stands in force and the case remains quashed, Shafique said.

Hasina, however, may not be released from jail as she has been shown arrested in the barge-mounted power plant corruption case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

The hearing in the framing of charges against her in the case is scheduled in the special judge's court set up on the Jatiya Sangsad complex.

The High Court bench of Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and Justice Shahidul Islam delivered the verdict on February 6 after hearing a writ filed by Hasina challenging the legality of placing the extortion case under the Emergency Powers Rules.

The case was filed by power company East Coast Trading Pvt Ltd managing director Azam Jahangir Chowdhury. The full court of the Appellate Division completed hearing both sides on the government's petition seeking stay on the High Court verdict at around 10am.

The court passed the order in its next session at noon in the jam-packed courtroom holding back the petition and asking the government to file a regular petition seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdict.

Moving the petition, the attorney general, Fida M Kamal, submitted that the High Court verdict had far-reaching consequences on the judicial system. He said the court should stay the execution of the verdict till the disposal of a government petition seeking permission to appeal, to be filed soon after the certified copy of the verdict is received.

If the verdict is not stayed, the cases for offences committed before the declaration of the state of emergency and brought under the Emergency Powers Rules for trial would be hampered, he argued. He termed 'outrageous' the High Court verdict that also quashed the entire trial proceedings of the extortion case which Hasina did not ask in the writ petition. 'How could the High Court give a ruling beyond its jurisdiction?' the state attorney said.

The court said, 'We have not read the verdict… How can we stay its execution?' Expressing the government concerns about the fate of other corruption cases being tried under the emergency rules and of the people already convicted under the rules, Kamal said they could not submit the certified copy of the verdict as they were yet to get the copy.

Opposing the attorney general's contention, Hasina's principal counsel Rafique-ul Huq said the High Court had delivered its verdict complying with the Appellate Division's earlier orders that had asked resolving the writ petition as soon as possible. 'If the stay is granted,' he said, 'it will amount to frustrating the High Court verdict that was delivered after the submissions by the contesting parties and a six-member panel of amici curiae.'

The government on February 7 filed the petition seeking the stay on the execution of the High Court verdict saying that it would file a regular petition for permission to appeal. Azam filed the case on June 13, 2007, accusing Hasina and her cousin, former minister Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, of taking Tk 2.99 crore in extortion during the 1996–2001 Awami League rule for the award of the installation of a power plant at Siddhirganj. After a month, Hasina was arrested on July 16 in connection with the case. Hasina has since then been detained in a special jail on the Jatiya Sangsad complex.

Hasina, along with her sister Sheikh Rehana, now living in London, and cousin Selim were indicted in the case on January 13. Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge M Azizul Haque began the trial in the case on January 30 with the recording of the deposition of Azam, who did not identify Hasina as accused. The trial, however, remains halted after the High Court verdict of February 6.

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