Dhaka, Sept 2 (bdnews24.com)—Former Awami League MP Joynal Abedin Hazari was released from Feni jail on bail on Wednesday.
Hazari walked out at around 10am and held a brief rally in front of the prison where he vowed to purge Feni of narcotics and terrorism.
Local AL leaders and activists greeted him with flowers.
The High Court on Aug 27 quashed an arms case against him in which he was sentenced to life.
In Aug 2003, a Feni court sentenced Hazari, and his personal assistant Farooq Hossain, to life after police recovered illegal arms and ammunition from his house in 2001.
Following last Thursday's High Court ruling , Hazari's counsel Shahjahan Shaju told reporters his client had now secured bail, been shown released or had charges dropped in all 23 cases that have been filed against him in the past.
"There is now no bar to his release from prison," said Shaju.
Hazari stood accused in a raft of cases during the AL's 1996-2001 tenure, but fled the country on Aug 16 when a caretaker government came in at the end of that administration.
The previous AL government had been widely condemned for shutting it eye to Hazari's criminal activities during the period.
The Feni native, after eight years away, returned to Bangladesh, reportedly from India, soon after the incumbent AL government took power.
Hazari surrendered to a Feni court on April 15 this year, and was immediately sent to Comilla jail.
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