Published : 21 Jun 2021, 08:01 PM
Updated : 08 Apr 2022, 01:01 PM
Led by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, a six-member Appellate Division bench passed the orders on Monday, acting on a petition filed by the state that sought to halt the bail previously granted by the High Court.
Attorney General AM Amin Uddin, accompanied by Additional Attorney General SM Muneer, represented the state, while lawyer Mahbubuddin Khokon appeared for the convicts.
The Appellate Division directed Satkhira’s District and Sessions Judge’s Court to dispose of the state’s petition by Sep 25, Additional Attorney General SM Muneer told bdnews24.com.
Earlier, the chamber judge Justice Hasan Foyez Siddique had stayed the High Court orders and referred the state's petition to a full bench of the Appellate Division on May 27.
The High Court bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir Lytton granted interim bail to seven people following separate petitions filed by the 18 convicts on May 25.
The convicts who received a four-month bail are lawyer Abdus Sattar, Abdus Samad, Golam Rasul, Zahirul Islam, ‘Rakib’, Shahabuddin and Monirul Islam.
A Satkhira court in February 2021 jailed 50 people, including a former BNP lawmaker, for varying terms over the attack on Hasina’s motorcade.
On Aug 30, 2002, Awami League chief Hasina went to Satkhira Central Hospital to visit a rape victim who was the wife of a freedom fighter.
Her motorcade was attacked in front of the Kalaroa Upazila BNP office while she was on her way back to Dhaka. Aside from the bomb attack and vandalism of cars, gunshots were also fired at Hasina.
Central leaders of the Awami League accompanying Hasina along with local activists and journalists were all injured in the attack.
Moslem Uddin, the then general secretary of Kolaroa Awami League, later went to file a case over the incident at the Kolaroa police station but the law-enforcing agency refused to record it.
Moslem Uddin then filed a complaint with the Satkhira court on Sept 21, 2014, more than a decade after the attack. The court subsequently ordered the police to start a case on the basis of the complaint.
On May 17, 2015, the police submitted charges against 27 people, including Habibul Islam Habib, the then BNP MP. But the defendants moved the High Court after the trial opened on Jul 10, 2017 after which the proceedings were stayed.
