New Age Online
The High Court on Tuesday granted interim bail to detained lawmaker Abdul Latif Siddique in 10 cases filed against him for hurting ‘religious sentiment of Muslims’ by his remarks on Islam and hajj.
A bench of Justice Md Nizamul Huq and Justice Farid Ahmed Shibli also stayed proceedings of the cases, seven of which filed with Chittagong court while rest three filed with Dhaka, Sylhet and Chapainawabganj courts.
The bench passed the order after hearing separate bail petitions filed by Latif Siddique.
His lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua told reporters that there is no bar for release of his client as he is not wanted in any cases.
Deputy attorney general AKM Moniruzzman Kabir said that 10 more cases were also pending against Latif in different courts.
Jyotirmoy, however, added that Latif was not shown arrested in those cases.
The High Court on May 26 granted six months’ interim bail to Latif Siddique in seven cases.
Also a former telecommunications minister, Latif Siddique, is now under treatment at the prison cell of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital.
The Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court had sent the deposed minister and expelled Awami League leader Latif Siddique to jail on November 25, 2014 as he was wanted in the cases.
He surrendered to Dhanmondi police station on the day, two days after his return to Dhaka from Kolkata on November 23.
On September 28 last year, the then posts, telecommunications and Information technology minister, Latif Siddique, while addressing a gathering at Jackson Heights in New York, said, ‘Abdullah’s son Muhammad had introduced the hajj as a means of livelihood for Saudi Arabians’ who, he said, were ‘robbers’.
‘I am dead against hajj and Tabligh Jamaat. I am more against the hajj and Tabligh Jamaat than Jamaat-e-Islami. It is sheer waste of manpower [and money]. Some 20 lakh people have gone to Saudi Arabia. They have no work to do there. It is deduction [of money] rather than production. They are spending and consuming. They are taking the country’s money to Saudi Arabia.’
His remarks triggered protest across the country and cases were filed against him.
Source: New Age
