Govt seeks stay on HC order granting bail to Fakhrul, Abbas

The government has moved to the Appellate Division seeking stay against the six-month bail granted by the High Court to BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Standing Committee member Mirza Abbas.

The application for suspending the bail order by the High Court will be heard by a full appellate division bench led by the chief justice on Sunday (8 January).

On Tuesday (3 January), the High Court granted bail to Mirza Fakhrul and Mirza Abbas for six months in a case involving a clash between party activists and police last month, after a long month of being denied bail four times by lower courts.

The division bench of Justice Md Salim and Justice Md Riaz Uddin Khan also issued a rule, asking the state to explain why the BNP leaders should not be granted permanent bail, and sought a report within four weeks.

Defence lawyer Sagir Hossain Leone filed separate bail petitions on behalf of Fakhrul and Abbas on 2 January, according to BNP Legal Secretary Barrister Kaiser Kamal.

Hours after the Naya Paltan clash, Fakhrul and Abbas were picked up from their residences on 8 December midnight and were shown arrested the next day.

Advocate Zainul Abedin, stood for Fakhrul and Abbas's bail plea, said they told the court in their arguments that the names of the two BNP leaders were not in the first information report of the case and that both of them are elderly.

According to lawyers and family sources, 92 cases have been filed against Mirza Fakhrul in the past 10 years. Of them, 20 to 25 are now active, according to the lawyers handling his cases. The BNP secretary general has served 350 days in jail since 2012.

Mirza Abbas's lawyers said 155 cases have been filed against the opposition leader since 2007.