Defamation case against Moeen to continue

Former army chief Gen Moeen U Ahmed. Star file photo

The Supreme Court today cleared the way for continuing the proceedings of a defamation case filed against former army chief Gen Moeen U Ahmed.

The Appellate Division of the SC gave the go ahead to the case, which remained pending at a lower court, after disposing of an appeal filed by the former army chief.

In the petition, Moeen sought cancellation of a High Court order that had ordered continuation of the case.

On February 25, 2010, the HC rejected a petition for dismissal of the defamation case filed against him by former BNP state minister for energy Iqbal Hassan Mahmood Tuku.

Tuku filed Tk 100 crore defamation case against Moeen on July 12 in 2009 with a Dhaka court for making defamatory remarks against some politicians.

According to the case statement, Moeen on March 27, 2007, at a tea party at the National Parade Square said that corrupt politicians had siphoned off at least Tk 20,000 crore of the energy sector during the tenure of the four-party government.

Tuku's lawyer Mahbub Uddin Khokon told reporters that there is no legal bar to proceed with the defamation case against the former army chief after the order of an Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain.