The Supreme Court (SC) has cleared the way for the lower court concerned to run the trial proceedings in a corruption case filed against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s younger brother Shamim Iskander.
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Sunday (June 12) dismissed a leave to appeal petition filed by the accused, challenging a High Court verdict that had rejected his petition for quashing the corruption case against him. A three-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, issued the dismissal order after hearing arguments on the leave to appeal petition.
Supreme Court’s lawyer Barrister AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon stood for the accused in the apex court, while lawyer AKM Fazlul Haque represented the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC).
AKM Fazlul Haque told media that there was no legal bar for the lower court concerned to run the trial proceedings of the case against Shamim Iskander following the apex court order.
The Appellate Division in its dismissal order, however, said that after the case was taken up by the trial court concerned, the accused could come to the higher court.
In 2007, the ACC had issued a notice seeking information on the assets of Shamim Iskander and his wife Kaniz Fatema.
The ACC filed the case with Ramna Police Station against Shamim Iskander and his wife on May 5 in 2008 on the charges of concealing information about wealth worth Tk 20.47 lakh in the statement submitted to the ACC and for amassing illegal wealth worth Tk 1.53 crore.
Later, they secured anticipatory bail from the High Court in the case.
In 2016, the High Court had rejected Shamim Iskander’s application seeking dismissal of the case, and they made an appeal to the Appellate Division.
