July 30, 2007	Monday	Rajab 14, 1428

DHAKA, July 29: The detained former prime minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina filed a writ petition on Sunday, challenging the scope for the government to lodge the extortion case against her under the Emergency Powers Rules.

Hasina's chief protocol officer Manzila Faruque signed the affidavit of the writ petition on her behalf with the prior permission of a High Court bench concerned.

Earlier, on Saturday, Hasina's counsel Toufique Newaz visited her at the special jail in the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban premises and finalised the power of attorney and other documents from her to move the petition.

Notably, the case involves alleged extortion of Tk 2.99 crore from a businessman in return for allowing him to build a power plant in Siddhirganj during Hasina's 1996-2001 regime.

Azam Jahangir Chowdhury, managing director of Eastcoast Trading, filed the case on June 13 with the Gulshan thana, accusing Hasina and former minister Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim of extortion.

Hasina and the Awami League denied the charges, saying that the case was politically motivated.

However, the writ petition claimed that transferring the extortion case against her under the Emergency Powers Rules was in violation of the law.

Rule 19(J) of the Emergency Powers Rules empowers the home ministry to bring any case under the emergency rules within 10 days of filing the case on the basis of the public importance of the case.

The petition argues that the amended rules do not empower the home ministry to bring any case under the emergency rules after the expiry of 10 days of filing the case, while Hasina's case has been brought under the emergency rules 33 days after the filing of the case.

Moreover, as the offence was allegedly committed much earlier than the commencement of the state of emergency, the case cannot come under the Emergency Powers Rules, the petition mentioned.

The incident of so-called extortion is an eight-year-old affair, it said.

The government has brought the case under the Emergency Powers Rules in order to bar her from seeking bail, as no accused in any case under emergency rules can seek bail, said Awami League's legal affairs secretary Sahara Khatun.

The petition also said that Hasina was arrested under the regular law, but an order from the home ministry, issued just hours after her arrest, said the case had been brought under the Emergency Power Rules.

Hasina was arrested on July 16 at Sudha Sadan, her Dhanmondi residence, and later a Dhaka court refused to give her bail and sent her to jail.

On July 24, the police formally charged Hasina with extortion, and the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court fixed Aug 16 for the hearing on framing charges against her.

Hasina's sister Sheikh Rehana, who lives abroad, has also been charged in the case, although the complainant had not named her in the original complaint.