"We demand the government to find out the real culprits through a neutral international investigation," said Ruhul Quaiyum, son of Abdul Quaiyum, at a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club yesterday.

He said that Quaiyum is a victim of a conspiracy on the part of some Habiganj BNP leaders, but he declined to name anyone involved.

"When my father became the local BNP vice president, a section of the Habiganj BNP did not like it. They are the ones who have framed him in the Kibria killing case," Ruhul pointed out.

Quaiyum started an early election campaign, including public advertisements and a public relations effort, just a few days before the killing of former finance minister Kibria on January 27, 2005. When the press pointed this out, Ruhul said, "As far as I know, my father did not declare himself to be an election candidate. I believe his enthusiastic followers have done those things to impress my father."

"The government's responsibility is to ensure security of the people. When it fails to do so, it is trying to give an eye-wash through arranging a farcical trial," Ruhul said, adding, "

A farcical trial inflicts sufferings on the people and destroys families --which is happening to my father and our family."

Ruhul said the police inhumanly tortured his father during a total of 47 days of remand. "He was threatened to be killed in a cross fire to make him give a false confession," Ruhul pointed out.

Asked about the freezing of his father's 10 bank accounts on allegation of unusually high transactions, Ruhul claimed that his father has only two accounts.

About Quaiyum's sources of income, he said his father used to do share business in the stock market besides his job in a private company.

The police filed two separate cases on the Kibria killing--one under the Explosives act and the other for the killing. Quaiyum was arrested from Dhaka on February 5. The police submitted a charge sheet in the killing case on March 20 and in the explosives case on April 20.

In both the cases a total of 10 have been accused, of whom eight have been arrested. Of them, four have given a confessional statement while Quaiyum has not given any confessional statement.

However, the four persons who made confessions later appealed to the High Court to withdraw their confessional statements, saying the police forced them to make the statements. The high court has stayed the proceedings of both the cases.

Quaiyum's counsel advocate MA Hye was also present at the press conference.