3 lawyers give 'confessional statements'

The three lawyers arrested over funding an Islamist outfit yesterday gave confessional statements before a court in Chittagong.

Prosecution lawyer Bikash Ranjan Dhar told journalists that the lawyers in their statements indirectly confessed to their involvement in financing a militant outfit.

He said they confessed to have deposited money to the bank account of Moniruzzaman, a key member of Shahid Hamza Brigade. They also admitted to representing members of Hefazat-e-Islam in a number of cases.

“As Moniruzzaman was a member of Shahid Hamza Brigade, they indirectly admitted to have funded the outfit,” said the state lawyer.

The defence lawyers, however, claimed that there were several breaches of law before taking his clients' confessional statements. They said they were not allowed to talk with their clients who were escorted by a good number of Rab and police personnel.

Defence lawyer Abdus Sattar said, "It has been done intentionally to create an intimidating ambience to pressure them into giving confessional statements."

He claimed that his clients returned the money to their client and that there's nothing wrong in this.

Md Kafil Uddin Chowdhury, another defence lawyer, said, "Though we could not talk with Farzana, we saw tears rolling down from her eyes. It is clear that she was intimidated."

Brushing aside the defence lawyers' claims, Bikash said they [Farzana and the other two] too are lawyers and if they felt threatened, they could convey it to the magistrate.  

“These are false claims”, said the state lawyer, adding that law enforcers were present in the area for the sake of security.

After taking their statements, the court of Senior Judicial Magistrate Sazzad Hossain of Banshkhali upazila sent the three to jail, rejecting their bail prayers moved by the defence lawyers.

On August 18, Rab men arrested Shakila Farzana, 39, and Hasanuzzaman Liton, 30, who reportedly practise at the Supreme Court, and Mahfuz Chowdhury Bapon, 25, who practises at the District Judge's Court of Dhaka, from the Dhanmondi area in Dhaka. Of them, Farzana is the daughter of former BNP Whip Syed Wahidul Alam.

The trio deposited a total of Tk 1.08 crore in the bank account of Moniruzzaman. Of the total money, Shakila deposited Tk 52 lakh in cash in two installments, Liton Tk 31 lakh and Bapon Tk 25 lakh, Rab claimed.