The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Detained Awami League president and former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will have to stand trial in the long-pending Mig-29 scam case as the High Court yesterday rejected her petition for quashing the charge of shady deals on purchase of eight fighter jets for Bangladesh Air Force when her government was in power.

An appellate division bench of the High Court, comprising Justice Nazrul Islam Chowdhury and Justice M Ataur Rahman Khan, passed the order vacating an HC order of stay given in 2003 on the trial court proceedings in the case.

With the rejection of the petition, the stay order given by the High Court earlier now becomes ineffective. As a result, there will be no impediment for trial of the case under the criminal procedures.

The delivery of High Court judgment, stretching over two days, cleared the way for the trial court to go ahead with its proceedings.

The court rejected the quashing petitions filed by Hasina and others on grounds that the alleged offences were disclosed in the FIR and the charge sheet

The court also said the arguments and statements placed before the court by the counsels of the accused were not found valid.

Barrister Shafique Ahmed, counsel for the ex-PM and Awami League chief, told reporters that they are “very unhappy” with the HC orders.

“Our clients are aggrieved with it and they will move the Appellate Division to overturn the HC orders as we still feel that it is a very fitest case for quashing,” he said.

While placing arguments, Barrister Ahmed told the court that the case filed by the previous four-party alliance government being “politically motivated”.

The court also rejected this argument saying that the case was filed on the basis of an investigation report by DGFI. So, there could not be any political motivation.

Hasina, who has been detained in a makeshift jail since July 16 in an extortion case, is facing a number of corruption charges.

Before arrest, she, however, denied all the charges, alleging that the incumbent government is trying to debar her from politics and future elections through these cases.

The now-defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption (BAC) filed the case in December 2001 against Hasina, former army chief Lt Gen (Retd) Mustafizur Rahman, former air chief Air Marshal Jamal Uddin Ahmed, former Defense Secretary Syed Yusuf Hossain, Air Commodore (Retd) Mirza Akhtar Maroof, Defense Joint Secretary (Retd) Mohammad Hossain Serniabat and businessman Noor Ali.

While Hasina was Prime Minister (1996-2001), eight Russian-made MiG-29 fighter planes were procured for the Bangladesh Air Force from Russia.

Immediate after the BNP-led 4-party alliance came to power, the BAC had filed the case. According to FIR, the government incurred a loss of Tk 700 crore on account of the warplane purchase.

The longstanding case remained dormant following a High Court order upon petitions filed by the accused persons for quashing the case.

However, the hearing on the petition filed by another accused Lt Gen (Retd) Mustafizur Rahman was not resolved as his counsel Syed Haider Ali is now Deputy Atorney General. Because of this he expressed his unwillingness to conduct the case on behalf of the accused.

The army-backed caretaker government that has waged war on corruption allegedly commited during the political regimes revived the case, as a purge is now on stream.