Ex-Speaker Shirin Sharmin gets bail

A Dhaka court on Sunday granted bail to former Speaker Dr. Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in an attempted murder case linked to the July 2024 mass uprising.

Dhaka Additional Metropolitan Magistrate Zakir Hossain granted her bail on a bond of Tk 50,000, considering her illness and gender, said Public Prosecutor M. Omar Faruq Faruqi.

Court sources said there is no legal barrier to her release, as she has not been shown arrested in any other cases.

Earlier, on April 7, a Dhaka court had sent her to jail following her arrest on the same day.

According to the case statement, a person named Ashraful alias Fahim sustained bullet injuries to his left eye at the Azampur Bus Stand area in Uttara on July 18, 2024, during the mass uprising that eventually led to the fall of the Awami League government on August 5.

He later filed a case against 25 named individuals, including Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, along with 120 unnamed accused.

Following the fall of the government, she resigned from her position on September 2, 2024.

Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury had been serving as Speaker since April 30, 2013. She was elected after Abdul Hamid, who had been Speaker following the Awami League’s victory in the 2008 general election, assumed office as President.

She was also a Member of Parliament from the Rangpur-6 constituency.