High Court drops graft case against Hasina for hearing, defers another

Dhaka, Feb 16 (APP): The High Court has dropped Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s appeal to cancel the Niko corruption case from the cause list and deferred the final hearing on the barge‑mounted power plants corruption case to April 19, eyebrows over her government’s interference in the dispensation of justice in the higher judiciary. The bench of Justice Sheikh Rezwan Ali and Justice Mohammed Raisuddin gave the rulings on a joint appeal by Hasina’s lawyer A F M Mesbahuddin and attorney general Mahbubey Alam. The court on January 7 had deferred the final hearing of her appeal for cancellation of these cases until February 15. It had also ordered the authorities not harass or arrest her until the cases were resolved. The court on October 27 last year had extended time for the cases as the postponement time was not settled. On August 13 that year, the Supreme Court upheld the High Court orders that the proceedings of the cases should be suspended in the trial courts. The High Court had postponed the proceedings of these two cases on July 7 and ordered the Anti‑Corruption Commission and the government to explain why these cases should not be cancelled. The ACC and the government lodged a case at the Tejgaon Police Station on September 2 , 2008 accusing Hasina of taking 30 million taka in bribe in for the Bangabandhu Memorial Trust in exchange for permission to set up the power plants during her 1996‑2001 days as prime minister . The ACC lodged the Niko corruption case against Hasina and six others at the same police station on December 9, 2008. The case accuses her of awarding the contracts, without inviting bids, for Chhatak, Kamta and Feni gas fields to Canadian oil and gas exploration company Niko Resources Ltd., making the state to count more than 1,35,000 million taka. The ACC later pressed charges against Hasina and eight others in the court.