Niko graft: SC upholds stay on Moudud's trial
The Supreme Court today upheld a High Court order that stayed for eight weeks the trial proceedings against BNP leader Moudud Ahmed in Niko graft case.
The apex court also asked the HC bench led by Justice M Enayetur Rahim to hear and dispose of by January 19 next year a rule issued over the trial proceedings against Moudud.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order after hearing a petition filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission challenging the HC’s stay order.
Following another petition filed by former law minister Moudud, the HC on December 1 stayed the trial proceedings against him in the case for eight weeks.
The court also issued a rule asking the ACC and the government to explain as to why the trial proceedings against Moudud should not be scrapped, ACC’s lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star.
The ACC filed the Niko corruption case in December 2007 over charges that BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and several others had abused powers to award a gas exploration and extraction deal to Canadian company Niko when she was the prime minister between 2001 and 2006.
Former law minister Moudud Ahmed was, among others, also accused in the case.
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