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Published : 22 Aug 2024, 02:55 AM
A court in Noakhli has acquitted the BNP’s Acting Chairperson Tarique Rahman of sedition charges.
Judge Md Noman Moin Uddin of Noakhali's Additional District Court delivered the verdict on Wednesday afternoon.
Inspector Md Shah Alam said the judge directed the Char Jabbar Police Station chief to return the arrest warrant issued against Tarique.
This marks the first acquittal for Tarique since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on Aug 5.
Tarique, who is in exile with multiple convictions including for the Aug 21 grenade attack case, has been facing numerous charges.
The sedition case was filed on Feb 28, 2015, by Omar Farooq, president of the Subarnachar Upazila unit Awami League and chairman of Char Jabbar Union, in response to remarks Tarique made about Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Tarique called the nation’s founding father a Pakistani collaborator at a function on Dec 15 in London, where he has been staying since he got parole in Bangladesh for medical treatment in 2008.
Following the filing of the complaint, the Noakhali Chief Judicial Magistrate Court ordered the Char Jabbar Police Station to investigate the matter.
On Apr 4, 2017, Sub-inspector Anwar Hossain Bhuiyan of the station submitted the charge sheet, after which the court issued an arrest warrant against the BNP leader.
Last Sunday, BNP activists in Subarnachar held a rally demanding the withdrawal of the case against Tarique, the eldest son of the party chief Khaleda Zia.
They also called for the removal of Farooq from his position as chairman of the union council and his prosecution.
Tarique was arrested in 2007 by the army-backed caretaker government and imprisoned for one and a half years before being released on bail.
While on bail, Tarique travelled to the United Kingdom with his family and has not returned home since. He became a senior vice chairman of the BNP while living abroad and currently serves as the acting chief of the party.
He has been sentenced to two years in jail for derogatory remarks about Bangabandhu, nine years for amassing illegal wealth, seven years in a money laundering case, 10 years in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case, and life imprisonment in the Aug 21 grenade attack case.
Tarique, currently a fugitive from justice for being abroad, has been unable to appeal any of his convictions.
