‘BNP can’t prove cases against Khaleda politically-motivated’

Expressing his reaction to the verdicts in the CPB rally bomb blast and 1988 Laldighi massacre cases, law minister Anisul Huq on Tuesday said it has been proved with the judgments that no criminal is above the law, no matter how powerful they are.

“If there’s a prime minister like Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh, people can rest assured that the trial of every crime or wrongdoing will be held as per the law,” he said while talking to newsmen at the Secretariat, reports UNB.

Asked whether the rule of law has been established with the judgments, the minister replied in the affirmative, saying the culture of impunity has also been uprooted. “All the criminals are being tried. Now we can say firmly that the rule of law has been established in the country.”

Replying to a query about BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s bail, Anisul said the court jailed her for embezzling orphans’ money. “Besides, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court denied her bail. All these things are under the jurisdiction of court.”

Asked about the BNP’s allegation that the cases were politically-motivated, Ansiul said those were not filed during the tenure of Sheikh Hasina’s government. “So, if the BNP alleged that the cases were politically-motivated, they can’t prove it through document.”

A court on Monday sentenced 10 people to death in a case filed over the bomb attack on a CPB rally in Paltan area, Dhaka in 2001.

After long 32 years of the gruesome killing of 24 people attending Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina's rally in Chattogram in 1988, a court in Chattogram on Monday sentenced five people to death in a case over the killing.

The court also sentenced them to 10 years’ imprisonment each in the case.