HC order deciding Hasina's fate today

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The High Court (HC) delivers today (Wednesday) its orders deciding the fate of former prime minister and Awami League (AL) chief Sheikh Hasina as to whether she should be tried in the warplane-purchase-scam case, reports UNB.
The much-talked-about Mig-29 case, pending with the trial court had been stayed for long by High Court orders upon applications filed by Hasina and six other accused for quashing the case related to alleged shady deals for the purchase of the supersonic fighter jets from Russia.
After closing Sunday the arguments made by both state and defence counsels on the petitions, a division bench comprising Justice Nazrul Islam Chowdhury and Justice M Ataur Rahman Khan fixed the date for deciding the fate of Hasina, already detained with a number of other cases hanging on her head.
When Hasina was Prime Minister during 1996-2001, eight Russian-made fighter planes of the brand were procured for Bangladesh Air Force.
According to the First Information Report (FIR), government incurred a loss of Tk 7.0 billion (700 crore) on account of the warplane purchase.
Former army chief Lt Gen (retd) Mustafizur Rahman, ex-air force chief Air Marshal (retd) Jamal Uddin Ahmed, retired defence secretary Syed Yusuf Hossain, Air Commodore (retd) Mirza Akhtar Maruf, retired defence joint secretary Mohammad Hossain Serniabat and businessman Noor Ali are the other charge-sheeted accused in the case.
Immediately after the BNP-led four-party alliance came to power, the now-defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption filed the Mig-29 case against Sheikh Hasina and the others with Tejgaon police station in December 2001.
After charge-sheet filing, they filed petitions with the High Court for quashing the case and the HC issued an order of stay on the trial proceedings until the court rule was resolved. But there had been a long pause as government side ceased from pursuing the lawsuit.
Now that a purge is on against serious crime and corruption under the state of emergency in the interim period, the government side made a fresh move on this and all other such dormant cases.