Three lawyers did not confess to funding militants, defence counsels say

Counsels of the three lawyers, arrested for allegedly funding militants, say their clients only confessed to taking up cases for alleged militants but did not fund them.

They claimed Shakila Farjana, Hasanuzzaman Liton, and Mahfuz Chowdhury Bapan were victims of ‘media crossfire’.

They gave the confessional statements to Chittagong’s Senior Judicial Magistrate Shahidul Islam’s court in a case at Hathazari Police Station under the Anti Terrorism Act on Wednesday.

RAB arrested them on Aug 18 in Dhaka.

Of them, Barrister Farjana and Advocate Liton practise at the Supreme Court while Bapan is an advocate at Dhaka Judges Court.

Farjana is the daughter of Syed Wahidul Alam, a former BNP whip from Chittagong.

Her counsel Abdus Sattar said, “Shakila is a victim of media crossfire. She had given confessional statement at Banshkhali, too. Confessional statement doesn’t mean she admitted to the crime. But media publicised that she admitted to the crime.”

“She said she had taken money for representing them and returned that. She never said that she funded militants,” he said.

Sattar claimed Farjana’s statement could be considered as witness’s statement in the case.

“She is innocent. She was never linked to militants and doesn’t believe in the idea of militancy,” he said.

Sattar also said Farjana became a victim of situation while conducting the case.

“A lawyer can stand for any criminal in the court. She took up [such a case]. She did not give any statement linking her (to militants) under the Section 164 (of the Bangladesh Penal Code),” he added.

Farjana, Liton, and Bapan said they took money from Hifazat-e Islami to represent them in court, a claim denied by the party.

Sattar said it was not important what Hifazat said. “It is all in the document. Papers will say if she had conducted the case. Lawyers have been defamed for this. I hope the investigating agency will understand the matter.”

The three lawyers were taken to the Chittagong court after their second remand.

On Monday, the court gave police 48 hours to question Farjana in the case under the Anti Terrorism Act and 72 hours for the two others.

Before that, the trio gave confessional statements to the Banshkhali court.

After arresting the lawyers from Dhaka’s Dhanmondi on Aug 18, RAB said they had given Tk 10.8 million to militant organisation Shaheed Hamza Brigade for purchasing weapons.

The elite police unit has arrested 29 Hamza Brigade members since February in Chittagong and seized a huge cache of weapons and explosives.