No bar to Fakhrul, Abbas walking out of jail as Supreme Court upholds bail

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Sunday upheld a High Court order granting a six-month bail to BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Standing Committee member Mirza Abbas.

The Appellate Division bench led by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique passed the order, dismissing the appeal of the government against the bail granted by the High Court.

Lawyers said following the Appellate Division order, there is no bar for Fakhrul and Abbas to walk free from jail.

The Appellate Division also directed disposal of the High Court rule that asked the government to explain why the BNP leaders should not be granted permanent bail in a case over clashes between police and BNP activists at Nayapaltan.

BNP's lawyer Masood Ahmed Talukder on Sunday told The Business Standard that the two leaders can be released from jail after submitting their bail bond in the judicial court on Monday.

Barrister Kaiser Kamal, who represented the two leaders, said, "During the current government's rule, many leaders were re-arrested in other 'fictitious' cases soon after they got bail. If the government does not do so, they can be released from prison."

On Wednesday, the chamber judge of the Supreme Court refused to stay the High Court bail and ordered that the counsels for the BNP leaders should not provide bail bonds for them before the lower court until 8 January.

Justice Jahangir Hossain Selim, a chamber judge of the Appellate Division, also referred to the state's petition challenging the bail to the full bench of the court for hearing on 8 January.

On 3 January, the High Court granted bail to the two top BNP leaders for six months. Subsequently, the government applied for suspension of the bail order.

BNP activists clashed with police in Dhaka's Nayapaltan on 7 December last year, leaving one dead and scores injured. After the incident, cops raided the BNP's Naya Paltan office, arrested more than 300 leaders and workers and filed around half a dozen cases against the opposition leaders and activists.

Fakhrul and Abbas were arrested on 8 December night in two separate drives to their residences.

The bail plea of Fakhrul and Abbas was turned down three times by the Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court. Subsequently, the counsel for the BNP leaders applied for bail with the HC on Monday.

The HC granted bail for six months after hearing that appeal. At the same time, the court also issued a four-week rule seeking why the BNP leaders will not be granted permanent bail.

Pro-BNP lawyers have complained several times that the two leaders are not getting bail due to "interference" by the government and the law ministry, which the law minister refuted.