DHAKA: A Bangladesh court on Sunday rejected a defence plea to dismiss graft charges against ex-premier Sheikh Hasina Wajed, accepting police testimony in the case as credible, a state prosecutor said.A metropolitan sessions judge in Dhaka said police evidence presented in the past month in the case was grounds to continue the trial and formally indict her on corruption charges, state prosecutor Sharfuddin Mukul said.

The judge then ordered the examination of prosecution witnesses to start Jan 17, Mukul said. “The judge rejected the defence plea and said there is a prima facie (accepted) case and sufficient materials for framing the charges against her.

Sheikh Hasina is now indicted on three charges of extortion,” Mukul said. “Under the country's penal code, she faces a maximum 14 years in jail (if convicted). Her trial will now be concluded within the next two months, as required under the country's emergency rules,” he added.

The leader of the country's major Awami League party pleaded not guilty last month to extorting $435,000 from a business group while she was the country's prime minister in 2000. She repeated the plea on Sunday.

Sheikh Hasina, who ruled the country from 1996-2001, is one of 150 high-profile figures who have been arrested as part of the emergency's government's crackdown on corruption.

She told the court that the case was “false and baseless, and only aimed at destroying her political career”, according to her lawyers and the state prosecutor.

“I haven't taken any money from anyone. The emergency government has filed the cases against me so that I cannot contest the elections. It is a conspiracy against me and my party.”—AFP