HC to hear appeals Aug 21 to quash Hasina graft cases

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The High Court (HC) Wednesday deferred until August 21 a hearing of the petitions for quashing MiG-29 fighter plane, frigate and Meghnaghat Power Plant graft cases against Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina, reports bdnews24.com.
An HC bench of Justice Nazrul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Md Ataur Rahman Khan set the date after an appeal from the former prime minister's lawyer, advocate Mahbubey Alam, for time.
Alam told the court that they needed some documents for necessary preparation of the MiG-29 case. He submitted the application for more time to get some documents from the International Court of Arbitration.
The two other cases will also be included in the work list on the day.
Earlier, Barrister Shafique Ahmed, on behalf of Hasina, was present during the hearing of the Mig-29 graft case-quashing petition. The hearing of the two other cases did not take place although they were included in the work list. Only partial hearing of one case was held.
Barrister Shafique told reporters that he had submitted relevant documents to court.
"The required element of the law is not found in the charge sheet. It cannot be said that Sheikh Hasina did all the things for any dishonest purpose. Only the summary had been presented before the former prime minister," he said.
During the AL government tenure, the major part of the payment for purchase of the MiG-29s was made. As the BNP government did not pay the remaining amount, the Russian government filed a case with the International Court of Arbitration. Bangladesh sent lawyers to face the case.
The then BNP government, at the suggestion of the lawyers, reached a compromise and paid the remaining amount.
Mahbubey Alam submitted an application to the court to bring the documents of the case from the International Court of Arbitration.