Bail upheld for Mirza Fakhrul, Mirza Abbas, no bar to release

Mirza Fakhrul and Mirza AbbasFile photo

The Appellate Division has lifted the order issued by Chamber Court restricting to file bail plea of BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and the party’s standing committee member Mirza Abbas.

The two opposition leaders were arrested in a case over a clash between police and BNP men on 7 December at the capital’s Naya Paltan area.

Therefore, the High Court's order granting bail to the two BNP leaders has been upheld. It means there is no obstacle to the release of the two leaders who has been languishing jails for about a month.

The four-member Appellate Division led by chief justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order after hearing the prosecution seeking stay of the bail granted to Fakhrul and Abbas by the High Court.

The Appellate Division has directed the High Court to rule on the two leaders’ bail within 30 days.

The apex court has asked the High Court to conduct hearing by bench headed by justice Md. Selim as to whether the bail application of the two BNP leaders’ is admissible or not.

After the order of the Appellate Division, one of the lawyers of the two leaders of BNP, Kaiser Kamal, told Prothom Alo, "The Appellate Division has upheld the order given by the High Court by granting six-month bail to Mirza Fakhrul and Mirza Abbas. There is no legal obstacle to their release now.”

Attorney general AM Amin Uddin represented the prosecution in the court Sunday. He was accompanied by deputy attorney general Sarwar Hossain.

Lawyer Zainul Abedin represented the two leaders accompanied by lawyer Sagir Hossain. BNP leaders lawyer AJ Mohammad Ali, Md. Asaduzzaman, Kaiser Kamal, Md. Ruhul Quddus and others were present during the hearing.

Mirza Fakhrul and Mirza Abbas were arrested by the police late at night on 8 December from their homes. The next day, they were shown arrested in a case for being involved with the clash between police and BNP leaders and activists on 7 December at the capital’s Naya Paltan area.

Their bail plea was rejected three times by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) court of Dhaka. The bail plea was rejected also by the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Court on 21 December. Following this they pleaded for bail in the High Court.

The High Court ordered the two to be granted interim bail for six months along with the rule on Tuesday. The prosecution later pleaded for a stay of this order the following day. It later appeared for hearing in the Appellate Division Chamber Court.

The Chamber Court fixed 8 January for hearing the petition filed by the state before the regular bench of the Appellate Division. The concerned court was directed not to file the bail appeal of these two leaders for the time being.