HC summons lawyers, bail guarantors
The High Court has summoned the lawyers and bail guarantors of ruling Awami League lawmaker Nizam Uddin Hazari to appear before it on November 5 to explain whether the process of his getting bail in an arms case was legal.
During hearing of a writ petition yesterday, the court also ordered the Supreme Court registrar to produce before it the documents on which Nizam, legislator of Feni-2 constituency, got bail from the HC in 2006.
MA Bashar, who appeared for Nizam before the HC in 2006, AKM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, the then assistant attorney general, Nizam's lower court's lawyer and his two bail guarantors have to appear before the HC on the day to clarify their positions in dealing with his bail appeal, writ petitioner's lawyer Manzill Murshid told The Daily Star.
He said there was confusion about the authenticity of Nizam's bail order.
Additional district magistrate of Chittagong has been asked to ensure the appearance of bail guarantors of Nizam and to produce relevant documents of the case against the AL lawmaker before the court, Manzill said.
On September 10 this year, the HC had passed a similar order for appearance of the lawyers and bail guarantors and for producing relevant documents before it on October 20, but the order was not complied with as it was not communicated to the respondents properly, he added.
Yesterday, the bench of Justice Mirza Hussain Haider and Justice Md Ataur Rahman Khan came up with the orders while hearing arguments on the writ petition that claimed Nizam had committed a forgery to get out of jail early and to contest the January 5 national election.
On July 16 this year, the Chittagong jail authorities submitted a report to the HC, saying this court on May 17, 2006 granted bail to Nizam after he made an appeal while serving a jail sentence.
The writ petition, filed by Jubo League leader Shakhawat Hossain Bhuiyan in June, says a Chittagong court had sentenced Nizam to 10 years' imprisonment in the arms case on August 16, 2000.
He surrendered to the trial court on September 14 in 2000, and was sent to Chittagong jail to serve his term.
But he had been in jail for only five years and was released on December 1, 2005, through fraudulence, it added.
Nizam was supposed to be in prison until September 13, 2010, and he, according to the law, was not supposed to be eligible to stand for polls before September 2015, the petition added.
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