PM's remark won't sway trial

Law Minister Anisul Huq yesterday refuted BNP's allegation that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's comment linking party Chairperson Khaleda Zia's family with the August 21, 2004 grenade attack will influence the ongoing trial.

“She [Hasina] talked about the magnitude of the incident and why action [against the culprits] was not taken [by the then BNP-led government]. If her remarks are analysed this way, the trial won't be influenced,” the minister told reporters, emerging from a conference at a city hotel.

On Thursday on the 10th anniversary of the gruesome attack on an Awami League rally, which killed 24 party leaders and injured over 300 people, Hasina said BNP founder Ziaur Rahman was behind the  murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and his family was involved in the grenade attack.

Such remarks will influence the ongoing trial, said Khandker Mahbub Hossain, president of the Supreme Court Bar Association and an adviser to the BNP chief, the next day.

The attack was part of a conspiracy to kill Hasina and AL senior leaders, Anisul Huq said.

As many as 52 people are accused in two cases filed in connection with the attack. Eighteen of them, including Khaleda's son Tarique Rahman, senior vice-chairman of the BNP, are being tried in absentia. 

“They should have faced trial and proved their innocence, if they want to say they were not involved,” the minister said.

Earlier, addressing the inaugural session of the three-day regional conference of the Asian Society of International Law (AsianSIL) the minister said he expected the Bangladesh chapter of AsianSIL would play a crucial role in promoting international laws.

The Bangladesh chapter of AsianSIL, which organised the conference, was formally launched yesterday.

Eminent jurist Dr Kamal Hossain expressed the hope that Bangladesh will work for the progressive development of the international laws.

Prof Simon Chesterman, general secretary of AsianSIL; Prof VS Mani, former president of AsianSIL, and Prof Borhan Uddin Khan, founding president of the Bangladesh chapter of AsianSIL, addressed the inaugural session. Prof Surakiart Sathirathai, president of AsianSIL and former deputy prime minister of Thailand, moderated it.