Start of arson trial against 46 opposition men deferred

 

In this May 7, 2012 photo, BNP leaders including acting general secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir surrender before the High Court and sought bail. Star file photo

A Dhaka court on Thursday deferred the trial till April 21 on an arson case against 46 opposition leaders, including BNP acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.
The case was filed with Tejgaon Police Station for torching a bus near the Prime Minister’s Office during hartal hours on April 29 last year.
Metropolitan Magistrate Harun-or-Rashid deferred the trial on Thursday acting on a time petition filed by defence lawyers.
In the petition, the defence said 39 accused including Fakhrul did not turned up at the court due to the opposition-called hartal.

The proceedings of the case had earlier stayed for six-month following an order of the High Court after Mirza Fakhrul filed a writ petition challenging the legality of the case on August last year.
Later, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court vacated the stay order of the HC and directed the trial court to restart the proceedings of the case.
On May 10, detectives pressed charges against Mirza Fakhrul and 45 others in the arson case.
Opposition alliances had enforced the hartal on the day to protest the disappearance of the party’s organising secretary M Ilias Ali.
Soon after the filing of the case, all the opposition leaders including Mirza Fakhrul went into hiding and then surrendered before the High Court on May 7.
In line with HC directives, they surrendered before the trial court on May 16. Subsequently the court sent them to jail.
On June 7 and 14, the politicians obtained bail from the High Court and trial court.