HC grants bail to Shawkat Aziz Russell

The High Court (HC) on Tuesday granted six months’ bail to Partex Group chairman Shawkat Aziz Russell, 10 days after he surrendered to a lower court and was sent to jail to serve a seven-year sentence in a corruption case involving the allotment of a plot in the Rajuk Purbachal residential project.

A bench of Justice Sayed Jahed Mansur granted the bail after admitting Russell’s appeal against the October 13 verdict of a Dhaka special court.

On November 1, Russell surrendered to the Dhaka court, which ordered him to be sent to jail.

Judge Md Abdus Salam of Dhaka Special Judge Court-9 had sentenced Russell, Partex Group managing director Ashfaq Aziz Rubel and six former Rajuk officials to seven years in prison each in absentia.

The court sentenced Russell and Rubel to seven years in prison and fined them Tk 10 lakh each for abetting criminal misconduct. They were also sentenced to another seven years and fined Tk 10 lakh each for abetting criminal breach of trust.

However, the court directed that the two sentences would run concurrently, requiring them to serve a total of seven years in prison.

The court also cancelled the plot allotments to Russell and Rubel, sons of late Partex Group founding chairman MA Hashem, and ordered the plots to be confiscated by the state.

Senior lawyer and BNP lawmaker Zainul Abedin appeared for Russell before the High Court.