3 arrested lawyers ‘confess’ to terror financing

Chittagong: The three lawyers, who were arrested on charge of terror financing, reportedly made their confessional statements before a court here on Sunday.
Banshkhali senior judicial magistrate Sazzad Hossain recorded the statements of the three lawyers, including two of the Supreme Court, under section 164 of the code of criminal procedure.
Earlier, the three lawyers—Shakila Farzana, 39, daughter of BNP leader and former whip Syed Wahidul Alam, Hasanuzzaman Liton, 30, hailing from Kushtia and a resident of Mirpur-10, and Mahfuz Chowdhury Bapon, 25, —were produced before the court on completion of their four-day remand in the morning.
After recording the confessional statements, the court also sent them to jail, rejecting their bail petitions in the case.
However, the court also asked the jail authorities to provide division facility to the lawyers.
On 19 August, a court put three lawyers on a four-day remand each in connection with the case, a day after they were arrested on charge of terror financing.
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested the three lawyers, including Supreme Court (SC) lawyers-Shakila and Liton, on charge of financing militant outfit Sahed Hamza Brigade (SHB) from Dhanmondi area of the city at about 11:00pm on 18 August.
Shakila is joint general secretary of Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Lawyers Forum and wife of Baharuddin of Rahmatganj area under Kotwali thana.
RAB-7 commanding officer Lt Col Mifta Uddin said a team of RAB-7 conducted a drive at Dhanmondi 27 near Barrister Shakila’s chamber and arrested the trio while they were coming out of the chamber at night. Later, they were brought here from Dhaka.
At a press briefing after their arrest at Patenga Headquarters of RAB Mifta Uddin Ahmed said they have enough evidence that the trio are involved in financing militant outfit Shaheed Hamza Brigade.
He said after examining the bank accounts of the leaders of the militant outfit it was found that Shakila deposited Tk 52 lakh, while Liton 31 lakh and Bapon 25 lakh to their accounts.
They were shown arrested in an arms case filed in connection with arms recovery from Latmoni hill in Banshkhali upazila, he said.
On 21 February, members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) unearthed a secret training camp of militant outfit Shaheed Hamza Brigade and arrested five suspected militants from Latmoni area in Banshkhali upazila. The RAB members also recovered huge arms from the camp.