Fakhrul, Abbas walk out of jail after a month
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Standing Committee member Mirza Abbas walked out of jail a month after their arrest on 9 December.
The two opposition leaders were released from Dhaka Central Jail, Keraniganj, around 5:50pm on Monday (9 January), after being denied bail four times in the lower courts.
Shayrul Kabir Khan around 6pm said that Mirza Fakhrul headed to the Naya Paltan party office of BNP after getting out of jail.
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Lawyers of the senior BNP leaders submitted bail bonds before the lower court concerned on Monday as they received the copy of the Appellate Division order that upheld their bail.
Earlier on Sunday (8 January), the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court 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 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.
On 4 January, 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.
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.
According to sources, some 92 cases have been filed against Mirza Fakhrul in the last 10 years.
Of these, 20 to 25 are now active and the BNP secretary general has served 350 days in jail since 2012, said lawyers handling his cases.
