Jumbangla Desk: Newly appointed ambassador Mushfiqul Fazal Ansari said that the arrest warrant against the finance advisor Salehuddin Ahmed and Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansoor has been suspended.
He gave this information in a post on his verified Facebook on Saturday (October 26).
In a Facebook post, Ambassador Ansari said Smith Cogeneration filed a lawsuit in the US court demanding compensation for the cancellation of a contract by the Awami League government in 1999. In 1997, Smith Cogeneration signed a power purchase agreement with the then government of Bangladesh and the government granted permission to build a barge-mounted power plant in the northern part of the country. After nearly 25 years in the case, the Washington, D.C. Circuit Court issued a ruling that largely excluded jurisdiction, which was stayed by the court on Friday. Although the matter has ended temporarily.
The responsibility of the looter government cannot be taken by this interim government formed through a bloody revolution. It is important to take action against the concealers without bringing the matter to the attention of the present government.
Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed and Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansoor are both high-level Bangladeshi diplomats and International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank officials, thus immune from criminal and civil proceedings in the United States.
It is to be noted that US-based media L-360 reports that an American court has issued an arrest warrant against Finance Advisor Salehuddin Ahmed and Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H. Mansoor. An arrest warrant was issued against them in an arbitration case against US power company Smith Cogeneration. Local time on Thursday (October 24), US District Judge Carl J. Nichols Smith ordered the US Marshals Service to bring the two men to court.
The power company filed the suit seeking compensation of $31.9 million from Bangladesh. The dispute started in 1997 when Smith Cogeneration signed a power purchase agreement with the Bangladesh government. Later the Bangladesh government canceled this project in 1999. Later that year the company filed a complaint with the ICC Tribunal.
