Ex-chief justice Khairul released on bail

Former chief justice ABM Khairul Haque has been released from custody after securing bail in all the cases filed against him.

His lawyer Motahar Hossain Saju confirmed to the media that he walked out of Keraniganj Special Jail on Wednesday afternoon.

The release came after the Appellate Division’s chamber court on Monday upheld his bail. The state had sought a stay on the High Court’s interim bail in cases filed under the attempted murder and explosives control laws. After hearing the plea, Chamber Judge Md Rezaul Haque issued a “no order”.

According to Haque’s lawyer, nine cases have been filed against the former chief justice, and he has secured bail in all of them. As he was not shown arrested in any other case as a named suspect, there was no legal barrier to his release.

The attempted murder case involving restaurant worker Ujjal Mia was filed on November 25, 2025. By then, however, Haque had already been in jail since April 27 of that year.

On May 17, the High Court directed authorities not to show the former chief justice arrested or harass him in any case without specific grounds. On August 9, an Appellate Division bench led by Chief Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury upheld the order.

The following day, a High Court bench comprising Justice KM Zahid Sarwar and Justice Sheikh Abu Taher granted Haque bail in the attempted murder case.

Haque became Bangladesh’s 19th chief justice in 2010 and retired in May 2011. He was appointed chairman of the Law Commission in 2013 and resigned from the post on August 13, 2024, eight days after the Awami League government fell.

Police arrested him from his Dhanmondi home on July 24 last year, and he had remained in custody since then.