The much talked-about trial of an extortion case against former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina began in a makeshift court here on Wednesday amidst tight security with the complainant refusing to identify her as an accused.

Police has charged that Sheikh Hasina, who was the prime minister from 1996 to 2001, along with her sister and a cousin, had extorted Taka 2.99 crore from an industrialist.

According to the prosecution, Hasina’s cousin, former minister Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, had forced industrialist Azam J  Chowdhury to pay Taka 2.99 crore for awarding installation work of a power plant in 2001. He  shared the money with Hasina and her London-based sister, Sheikh Rehana. Azam J Chowdhury, who filed the case in June last year, testified before the court without identifying Hasina as an accused.

“I filed the case against Sheikh Selim,” he told the court. “I don’t know anyone else.”Last week, Chowdhury made a similar statement to reporters which created a controversy.

Hasina’s counsels said that Chowdhury’s statement in the court weakened the case and that she should be freed. Prosecution lawyers said the investigation showed that she was involved in the case.
Sheikh Selim, they said, had stated before a magistrate earlier that he had shared the money with Hasina and Rehana.

Sheikh Selim later urged the court to withdraw his statement. The court has set February 5 for the next hearing. Sheikh Hasina’s Canadian lawyer Payam Akhavan has in the meantime questioned her trial process and hoped that the government would allow him to meet her in jail to enable him to place reports to the United Nations and other international human rights organisations.

“It appeared that the government is working in a way so that Hasina can’t work for the elections,” said Akhavan, the first legal adviser to the prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Tribunals for Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. “Human rights and democracy are in trouble here.”

Hasina, elder daughter of Bangladesh’s founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and chief of opposition Awami League, has denied the charge. “It is a conspiracy to disqualify me from seeking election,” she said. “I have never taken money from any one.”