The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

A High Court Division Bench of the Supreme Court yesterday began hearing a writ petition challenging the trial of a Tk 3 crore extortion case against detained former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina under the Emergency Powers Rules (EPR).

A businessman Azam J Chowdhury, Managing Director of East Coast Pvt Ltd, filed the extortion case against Sheikh Hasina, also the President of the Awami League, on June 13, 2007.

Sheikh Hasina's counsel Barrister Shafique Ahmed during the hearing in the Bench comprising Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and Justice Shahidul Islam, submitted that in no way the case could be tried under the EPR since incident happened much before the proclamation of the state of emergency in the country.

He argued that applying the Emergency Powers Rule to an incident that took place a long time back contradicts the law itself.

Earlier on January 17, the High Court had stayed the proceedings of the case in the trial court until the dispute centring the legitimacy of trying the case under EPR was settled.

On January 21, the Government appealed against the High Court stay order, and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court is expected to resume hearing today.

Sheikh Hasina was arrested and detained on July 16, 2007. She was subsequently shown arrested in the case filed by Azam J Chowdhury.