DHAKA, 30 April 2007 — Bangladesh’s High Court refused yesterday to accept a petition seeking legal immunity for former Prime Minister Hasina Wajed.
The petition intended to seek an order asking police not to arrest Hasina, who faces charges for murder and extortion, when she returns from London next week.
“A High Court bench comprising judges S.A.N.M Mominur Rahman and M. Zubaidur Rahman Chowdhury, refused to accept the writ petition as it lacked an affidavit signed by Hasina,” a court registrar said.
Bangladesh’s army-backed interim government last week withdrew a ban on Hasina returning to the country from abroad.
A court also suspended an arrest warrant last week issued for her alleged involvement in deaths related to street violence between rival political parties in October. Hasina also faces a charge of extorting some $430,000 from a businessman in 1998.
She has rejected both charges and has maintained her call for early polls to establish an “elected, transparent and accountable government” if poverty and corruption are to be eradicated in the country.
Preparing to leave London, Hasina has kept up her media campaign, rejecting suggestions that she might be cowed down by possible harassment by government quarters. “My people are with me,” she told Al-Jazeera TV.
Hasina admitted the presence of corruption in the country, but hastened to add that it could only be curbed by “an elected, transparent and accountable government.”
She observed that the country could not run long without elections. Before returning home, Hasina will deliver a lecture at London School of Economics tomorrow and meet Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon Thursday.
Her efforts to “return home and face consequences” a week back were thwarted by Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed’s interim government saying her return could cause political instability and disruption to the economy.
This, and alleged efforts to exile immediate former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia failed last week.
The government persistently denied such efforts and admitted them to be “a mistake” and has since said that suggestions for sending/keeping the two women leaders out came from sections of their respective political parties.
