Fakhrul, Abbas to remain in jail until SC hearing on Sunday

Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir (left) and Mirza Abbas (right).

Bangladesh desk: Detained Bangladesh Nationalist Party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and standing committee member Mirza Abbas will not be able to be released from jail before Sunday as the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court is scheduled for the day to hear government’s appeal challenging the bail granted to them by the High Court.

Appellate Division’s chamber judge Jahangir Hossain asked the lawyers representing Fakhrul and Abbas not to submit the High Court’s bail order to the Dhaka chief metropolitan magistrate’s court to communicate the release order to the jail authority.

The chamber judge passed the order after a brief hearing on the government’s appeal seeking stay on the bail of the two opposition leaders.

The High Court on Tuesday granted six-month bails to the two senior leaders on humanitarian grounds, as Mirza Fakhrul, 74, and Abbas, 71, had been suffering from various old age complications.

The bench also asked the government and the court of Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Asaduzzaman to explain in four weeks why Mirza Fakhrul and Abbas should not be granted regular bail.

On December 9, a team of Detective Branch of police picked up Fakhrul and Abbas from their homes in separate raids in the capital.

Later, they were shown arrested in a case over the clash between police and the party activists in the capital’s Naya Paltan. A Dhaka court sent them to jail rejecting their bail pleas.

On December 21, Dhaka Metropolitan Session Judge Asaduzzaman rejected the BNP leaders’ bail petitions for the fourth time.