December 27, 2007	Thursday	Zilhaj 16, 1428

DHAKA: A Bangladesh court started prosecution on Wednesday against detained former prime minister Sheikh Hasina for alleged extortion.

“The hearing has just begun over one of the two extortion charges, in the presence of lawyers, officials and reporters,” a court official said without giving details. The court later adjourned the session and re-fixed Dec 31 to resume the hearing, as defence lawyers sought time to collect material documents of the case.

Hasina and Sheikh Selim, a former minister of her government during 1996-2001 and a co-accused in the case, were brought before Judge Mohammad Azizul Hoque for the hearing.

The other co-accused, Hasina’s only sister Sheikh Rehana, is now living abroad and has been shown as absconding, police said. The court sat at a house near a building in the sprawling parliament compound in Dhaka, where Hasina has been detained since her arrest in July.

The ex-prime minister was accused of extorting some $1 million from two businessmen while in power. Police had registered two cases for extortion against her.

Hasina looked cheerful and confident as she stood on the dock, listening to the charges read out by the chief prosecutor.

“The cases are false, and the interim government is pursuing it only to disqualify me for the coming elections,” defence lawyer Shafique Ahmed quoted Hasina as telling him.Her rival Begum Khaleda Zia, also a former prime minister, has been detained since September on corruption charges and will face prosecution soon, a law ministry official said.

Hasina and Khaleda have alternated in power over the past 15 years. If convicted, the two leaders could be barred from running for office again for 10 years. Besides extortion and corruption charges, the two former prime ministers were also indicted for corruption in giving a work order to a Canadian oil firm.

Both the former prime ministers have denied the charges. Bangladesh has been under a state of emergency since January, when the army-backed interim government took charge following months of political violence. It banned political activities, rallies and protests, cancelled an election planned for Jan 22 and launched a massive crackdown on corruption aimed at cleaning up politics before parliamentary elections it vowed to hold around the end of next year.

More than 170 leading politicians, including Khaleda’s two sons and dozens of ex-ministers, have been detained in the anti-corruption drive.

—Reuters