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| Bangladesh |
| Hannan forced to 'confess' |
| 2012-01-17 |
| [Bangla Daily Star] Claiming that Sherlocks forcefully obtained signatures on the confessional statements of HuJI Founded in 1984 by Fazlur Rehman Khalil and Qari Saifullah Aktar. The Bangla branch was established in 1992 with assistance from Osama bin Laden. Recruits come mostly from Deobandi madrassahs. HuJI and Fazlur Rehman Khalil are signators of bin Laden's declaration of war on the west. leader Mufti Abdul Hannan, his counsel yesterday pleaded with a Dhaka court for discharging the accused from the August 21 grenade attack cases. Seven other accused including former Dhaka City Corporation councillor Ariful Islam Arif yesterday filed discharge petitions with the Speedy Trial Tribunal-1. With this, 30 accused have appealed to the tribunal seeking discharge from the cases -- one under the explosive substances act and the other for murder. During the hearing on Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) leader Hannan's discharge prayer, his lawyer Lutfor Rahman Sheikh told the court that his client was tortured on November 1, 2007, to sign a "so-called" confessional statement in the cases. Based on this statement, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had pressed charges against Hannan and 21 others in June 2008. None of the 61 prosecution witnesses, who testified in the court, mentioned his client's name, the attorney argued. During further investigation, CID took Hannan to its Malibagh office from Sylhet jail on April 4 last year without remand. The Sherlocks tortured him heavily to make him confess to the crime implicating several others. On refusal, Hannan was again brought to Dhaka Central Jail on April 7 and was taken to Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka that evening, maintained the lawyer. At the magistrate's chamber he was forced to sign a written confessional statement, but Hannan still denied to give in. Later CID forged his signature on an additional confessional statement and accordingly pressed charges against BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman ...the elder son of former President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman Bir Uttam, and Khaleda Zia, former Prime Minister of Bangladesh. He is the Senior Vice Chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). His nickname is Pino. There are allegations that Pino took a rakeoff from every foreign investment into the country while Mom was in office... and 29 others on July 3 last year, said Lutfor Rahman. According to the prosecution, Hannan and 11 others had earlier confessed to the crimes, narrating how and why they had planned liquidations of the then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina and her party leaders and activists. The court so far has heard 23 discharge petitions in the cases. It has fixed January 23 for hearing the next prayer. Twenty-four people were killed and around 200 injured in the grisly grenade attack on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004. The Sherlocks have accused 52 persons in the two cases. Of them, 32 are now in jail, one on bail and the rest have been absconding. |
| Posted by:Fred |