Hasina's lawyers seek trial in new court

Dhaka, Feb 5 (bdprem.com) – Sheikh Hasina's lawyers said Tuesday they no longer had confidence in the judge conducting trial of an extortion case and wanted a new court to run the proceedings. The defence lawyers said they doubted metropolitan sessions judge Md Azizul Haque would give a fair trial. Your Ad Here They also accused him of bias and circumventing proper legal procedures at the trial and were preparing to petition the High Court to shift the case from the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court set up on the parliament complex. The defence's latest move came amid developments that the High Court Tuesday ended hearing on a writ petition that challenged the legality of the same trial under emergency rules for an alleged crime that happened much before. They argue that the incident that allegedly took place years before the state of emergency had been declared could not be brought under the emergency rule. A case taken under the cover of emergency rules means the accused lose the right to seek bail. The case filed on June 13 charges the former prime minister with taking Tk 3 crore in extorted money from businessman Azam Jahangir Chowdhury to let him build a power plant during her 1996-2001 term. Justices Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and Shahidul Islam began deliberating on the verdict and the final verdict is expected to come Wednesday. The verdict may seal the fate of other cases pressed under similar circumstances. The court on July 30 had ordered the government to explain why the case should not be declared illegal after the writ petition had been filed. Hasina's counsel barrister Rafiq-ul-Huq said: "The court is about to finish its verdict." The defence Tuesday attended the trial proceedings at the makeshift court and said they were not convinced that the court was in a position to deliver justice. "We have decided to file an appeal with the High Court for transferring the case to any other court," defence lawyer Syed Rezaur Rahman told the court. "We have submitted the application notifying our intention," he said. He explained to the court: "As our appeal to expunge the plaintiff's testimony was turned down, the defence is doubtful about getting justice in your court." Defence lawyer Kamrul Islam accused the court of going by the diktat of the prosecution. The judge said what he had done he had done out of his conscience. The defence then appealed to the court to adjourn the proceedings for two weeks to allow them to file the appeal with the High Court. Judge Haque heard the arguments by both sides and adjourned the trial until Feb 11. He also asked the defence to submit a copy of the appeal to be filed with the higher court to his court when the court resumed. The defence's doubts about a fair trial brewed after the court Tuesday turned down a request to delete Monday's deposition of plaintiff Azam J Chowdhury from the records. Judge Azizul Haque suspended the proceedings and abruptly left the courtroom amid a brawl between the defence and the prosecution. The defence argued that Azam's deposition had been completed on Jan 30 and that recording the plaintiff's deposition afresh Monday had been illegal. They also argued that the government had skipped filing an appeal in writing for recording Azam's testimony afresh. The prosecution countered that recording of the plaintiff's deposition had not been completed on Jan 30 and hence supplementing the testimony was warranted Monday. They argued that there was no legal provision to expunge what had been recorded already in the court and that they should be able to proceed with the deposition with the court's permission. Hasina and her cousin former health minister Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim were in docks Tuesday. Hasina was arrested on July 16. The next day the case was taken under emergency rules and she was shown arrested. On July 24, a chargesheet was submitted to the court accusing Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana and Sheikh Selim.