SC stays Moudud’s trial proceedings in Niko graft case

The Supreme Court today stayed for three months the trial proceedings against former BNP law minister Moudud Ahmed in Niko corruption case.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order in response to an appeal filed by Moudud seeking a stay on the trial proceedings of the case.

Anti-Corruption Commission’s lawyer Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star that the trial proceedings of Niko corruption case will remain stayed for three months as the apex court passed the stay order following Moudud’s appeal.

However, Khaleda Zia’s lawyer Barrister AM Mahbubuddin Khokon told the reporters that the proceedings of all the accused in the Niko graft case including BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and Moudud will remain stayed as an arbitration regarding the case running at a Paris court.

The ACC filed the case in 2007 over charges that Khaleda Zia and several others abused power to award a gas exploration and extraction deal to Canadian company Niko when she was prime minister from 2001 to 2006.