Hopes for a smooth run-up to Bangladesh's December election hit new snags after a court issued warrants for several former ministers and asked them and ex-prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia to appear at a hearing next week. They have been asked to be available in court on October 12 for trial over a coal mine case in which Khaleda and a dozen of her ex-ministers and officials are accused to making millions of dollars illegally.
They all deny the charges, which Khaleda and her supporters say are politically motivated, but the court appeared firm on pursuing the case, reflecting what analysts said was the military-backed interim government's vow to let the law take its own course. "The charges against Khaleda Zia and other leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) have been submitted (by the Anti-Corruption Commission) with an ulterior motive to keep them away from the election," BNP secretary-general Khandaker Delwar Hossain told reporters late on Monday.
Earlier, the High Court refused to grant another former prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, now on a medical parole in the United States, bail on charges of corruption. Instead, it asked authorities not to arrest or harass Hasina on her return, expected by October 20. Hasina's lawyers said the court's decision would at least keep Hasina from an immediate arrest after she comes back to Dhaka, but her Awami League party was unhappy about the move.
The BNP and Awami League fear detention and legal battles could prevent the two ex-prime ministers from contesting in the December election. The parties are protesting the legal actions and say they will stay away from the polls if they do not include Khaleda and Hasina, who alternated as the impoverished Muslim-majority country's prime minister over 15 years until 2006.
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