Asian rights body assails Bangladesh courts indecision on Hasina case

The Asian Centre for Human Rights has denounced the deferral of the order on Shiekh Hasinas bail plea to August 14, 2007 by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh as a blot to justice.

New Delhi, Aug.2 : The Asian Centre for Human Rights has denounced the deferral of the order on Shiekh Hasina's bail plea to August 14, 2007 by the Supreme Court of Bangladesh as "a blot to justice".

The Supreme Court was scheduled to deliver its order today on an appeal filed by the care-taker government challenging the order of the High Court of 30 July 2007. The High Court had granted her bail, stayed the inclusion of the extortion case under the Emergency Powers Rules (EPR) and directed the government to explain within two weeks as to why the approval of the case under the EPR would not beeclared illegal.

"This is nothing but the Supreme Court sanctifying continued illegal detention of Sheikh Hasina until 14 August 2007 in clear violation of the cardinal principles of criminal jurisprudence - the presumption ofnnocence until proven guilty." - said Suhas Chakma, Director of Asian Centre for Human Rights.

The prime accused in the alleged extortion case, Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, former Health Minister was detained by the authorities on May 29, but was shown arrested only on June 14 after filing of the Firstnformation Report the day before.

According to the rights body, there is no direct link or evidence to suggest that the alleged extortion was done at the behest of Sheikh Hasina.

It described the detention of Hasina as a political conspiracy of the caretaker government and not a necessity to conduct investigation into the alleged extortion case.

It accused the caretaker government of interfering with both the investigation and administration of justice by forcing the judiciary, including the Supreme Court to invoke the Emergency Power Rules, 2007, Chakma said.

ANI