The High Court on Tuesday granted interim bail for six months to former chief justice ABM Khairul Haque in the last two cases filed over killings during the 2024 July uprising, clearing the way for his release from jail.
The bench of Justice KM Zahid Sarwar and Sheikh Abu Taher passed the order after hearing the former chief justice’s bail petitions.
Additional attorney general Mohammad Abdul Jabber Bhuiyan, who opposed the bail prayer, later said that the government has yet to decide if an appeal will be filed against the High Court’s bail order.
He, however, said that there was no merit to the cases.
On April 28, the Appellate Division upheld High Court’s March 8 and March 11 orders granting Khairul bail in five other cases.
The cases in which Khairul was granted bail were filed with Jatrabari police station and Adabar police station in Dhaka.
The case with Jatrabari Police Station was lodged over the killing of madrassah student Md Arif and the case with the Adabar police station was filed over the killing of garment worker Md Rubel during the mass uprising.
Arif sustained bullet injuries during indiscriminate firing on student protesters by leaders and activists of the Awami League and its associate bodies on Boubazar Road. He was later declared dead at Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
Rubel died on August 7, 2024, two days after he had sustained bullet injuries at Adabor on August 5, 2024.
Though Khairul had earlier secured bail in five cases, he could be released from jail as he was shown arrested in these two cases, the former chief justice’s lawyer Md Motaher Hossain Sazu said.
With the latest bail orders, he said, the court has cleared the way for his client’s release from jail.
On March 11, the High Court also granted Khairul permanent bail in a corruption case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission in August 2025.
On March 8, the HC granted him bail in four other cases. One case was filed with the Jatrabari police station over the killing of Juba Dal activist Abdul Quiyyum Ahad during the July uprising.
Another was filed with the Shahbagh police station by Supreme Court lawyer Muzahedul Islam Shahin, alleging forgery linked to the caretaker government verdict.
Two similar cases were also filed with the Fatullah police station and the Bandar police station in Narayanganj on August 25, 2025.
Khairul was made an accused in these three cases on criminal charges, including sedition, fraud, and judicial misconduct, particularly related to altering the verdict declaring the caretaker government system illegal in 2011.
The cases alleged that on May 10, 2011, while serving as the chief Justice, Khairul led an Appellate Division bench that, in an open court, stated that elections for the 10th and 11th parliaments could still be held under a caretaker government. However, in the final written verdict released on September 16, 2012, after his retirement, he allegedly changed the decision to declare that only elected lawmakers could form such a government.
Khairul served as the chief justice from September 30, 2010 to May 17, 2011.
The police arrested him at his Dhanmondi home on July 24, 2025, nearly a year after the July mass uprising, which ousted the authoritarian Awami League regime.
