Hasina, seven others get bail

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Former Prime Minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, now abroad on parole, Tuesday secured bail from the High Court in an extortion case in the last-ditch effort for her release, reports UNB.
Responding to a petition, a vacation bench of the High Court comprising Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Mamnoon Rahman granted her ad-interim bail for three months.
The HC also stayed the trial proceedings of the case, filed by businessman Azam J Chowdhury, up to one week after the reopening of the court.
The case is now pending with a special court set up in the high-security parliament-building complex that deals with high-profile corruption cases filed under the now-ebbing purge launched by the interim regime following the 1/11 changeover.
Emerging from the court, Barrister Shafique Ahmed, a top counsel for Hasina, told reporters that following the bail order there would legal bar to release of his client from incarceration.
On a separate application, co-accused in the case Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, the former health minister of her cabinet and her cousin, also got bail for three months on health grounds.
The former Premier filed the petition Sunday. This latest move was seen as the last-ditch legal bid for freeing her on bail to join the current political process of resolving various tricky issues standing in the way to the polls for transition from the interim regime.
She faces a total of 15 graft cases, and the bail in this extortion case cleared the way for her interim release.
As to the rest of the cases, she has either secured bail in some of those in the meantime or has not been shown arrested in some others.
Now that both the former premiers are out of jail, the caretaker government could pursue their plan of a Hasina-Khaleda meeting to clear all the roadblocks to democratic transition through the holding of the stalled national elections.
Commerce Adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman had earlier said the Awami League chief's release through legal course would pave the way for her political summit with recently released BNP chairperson and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.
Another report adds: The High Court also granted bail to six more detained former ministers and lawmakers in graft cases.
Among those who secured bail are ex-whip Mirza Azam of Awami League and former health minister Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, ex-works minister Mirza Abbas, ex-state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar and ex- MPs Mojibar Rahman Sarwar and Mosaddek Ali Falu of BNP.
All of the political heavyweights from the rival camps got equitable considerations as the High Court granted them bail for three months each, pending trial in specially set courts in the high-security parliament complex.