Ex-PM Sheikh Hasina to face trial in Mig 29 purchase scam case

Dhaka, Sep 6 (UNI) Bangladesh's ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina will face trial in Mig-29 purchase scam case, as the High Court here today discharged her petition for quashing the case.

Hasina who is now detained in a makeshift jail has been facing a plethora of corruption cases. Before arrest, she however denied all the charges alleging that the present army-backed caretaker government is filing all these cases to debar her from politics and future elections.

Now defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption (BAC) filed a case in December, 2001 accusing Hasina and five others including former army chief Lt Gen (retd) Mustafizur Rahman and former air chief Air Vice-Marshall Jamal Uddin Ahmed of corruption in purchasing eight MiG-29 from the Russian government.

The eight Mig-29 fighter planes were purchased at USD 150 million under state to state negotiations in February 1999.

It was alleged that during Sheikh Hasina's tenure as Prime Minister (1996-2001), eight MiG-29 were purchased causing a loss of about Taka 700 crore to the state.

Hasina's counsel Barrister Shafique Ahmed told reporters that they would go to Supreme Court to overtturn the High Court orders.

UNI