[JURIST] Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina [party profile; JURIST news archive] appeared in court Sunday, shortly after being released from hospital care for severe ear and eye conditions, to face charges [JURIST report] that she received approximately $440,000 in illegal kickbacks on a power-plant deal while in office between 1996 and 2001. Her appearance before the court has been postponed numerous times because of her heath and her initial insistence [Arab News report] that she be allowed to travel outside the country for care, a request that the court has refused. After her court appearance, Hasina was returned to a special prison in Dhaka, the nation's capital.

The two cases against Hasina, who also faces separate extortion charges, have also been delayed by a series of appeals by her lawyers, who argue that she cannot be tried under the current state of emergency rules because the alleged crimes occurred before the national state of emergency [JURIST report] was declared last January. The Bangladesh Supreme Court [official website] rejected those arguments in January, ruling that her extortion trial could continue. The Dhaka High Court in February halted the trial [JURIST report], agreeing with her lawyers, but the Supreme Court later stayed the High Court's judgment [Xinhua report] and reiterated its June decision, paving the way for trial proceedings to continue. Hasina, who has denied all charges, faces up to 14 years in jail if convicted. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] British national Simon Mann [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], accused of participating in an alleged coup attempt [BBC backgrounder] against Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo [BBC profile] in 2004, has accused Sir Mark Thatcher [BBC profile] of being involved in the plot, Equatorial Guinea Attorney General Jose Olo said Sunday. According to Olo, Mann, whose trial is set to begin in May, made statements to prosecutors during recent pretrial testimony that Thatcher was fully aware of the scheme to overthrow the president. Despite Saturday reports [AFP report] that Equatorial Guinea has requested an international arrest warrant [Guardian report] for Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, international police organization Interpol [official website] on Sunday denied having received such a request.

Thatcher pleaded guilty [JURIST report] in South Africa in 2005 to charges related to the failed coup and later admitted to having chartered a helicopter for Mann, but has denied knowledge of or involvement in the coup plot. Mann was sentenced [JURIST report] in 2004 in Zimbabwe for plotting the coup, and was deported [JURIST report] to Equatorial Guinea in secret last month before his appeal process against extradition in Zimbabwe was complete. His lawyers argued that Mann would face torture and possibly the death penalty if extradited, but the Zimbabwe High Court ruled against his appeal [JURIST report] in January, finding that there was enough evidence of his involvement to carry out extradition, and that the defense failed to show a sufficient likelihood of torture. Equatorial Guinea has promised to give Mann a fair trial and not seek capital punishment. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] on Sunday criticized Egypt [statement] for arresting over 800 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood [party website; FAS backgrounder], including 148 candidates slated to run in local council elections scheduled for April 8. HRW characterized the arrests as a "shameless attempt to fix the upcoming elections." The Muslim Brotherhood [JURIST news archive] currently holds one-fifth of the seats in the lower house of parliament with members elected as independents. The organization has accused the government of trying to prevent it from running candidates in the upcoming elections which were originally scheduled for 2006 until the Egyptian legislature passed a law [JURIST report] delaying the elections for two years after the Muslim Brotherhood made a strong showing in the 2005 parliamentary elections. According to HRW, none of the Muslim Brotherhood members arrested in recent weeks have been charged "with actual crimes."

Earlier this month, several provincial Egyptian courts ruled that members of the Muslim Brotherhood must be allowed to register as candidates [JURIST report] in the upcoming elections, even as Egyptian police continued arrests of group members [JURIST report]. Muslim Brotherhood members officially run as independents in elections as the organization has been banned in Egypt [JURIST news archive] since 1954. The Egyptian government has accused the group of trying to create an Islamic theocracy through violence. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn [official website] warned Turkey on Saturday that there would be serious ramifications for its bid to join the European Union [JURIST news archive] if the Constitutional Court of Turkey [official website, in Turkish] decides to shut down the ruling Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) [party website, in Turkish]. Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya [official profile, in Turkish] petitioned the court earlier this month to disband the AKP and bar Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul [BBC profiles] from political office. The Constitutional Court could meet as early as Monday to decide whether to take the case [JURIST report] and dissolve the AKP and ban its members from politics for five years. Rehn noted that this type of political issue would normally be debated in parliament and decided by a ballot in a typical European democracy and that a decision to ban the Islamic-oriented party could create an obstacle in Turkey's bid to become a member of the EU.

The AKP, which emerged in 2001 from a banned Islamist party, took 47 percent of the vote in the national parliamentary elections last July. The AKP controls the offices of the prime minister and president, and dominates the 550-seat parliament with 340 lawmakers. The Constitutional Court has banned several Islamist parties in the past, including the Welfare Party, which led Turkey's first pro-Islamist government for nearly a year, for violating constitutional obligations to respect Turkey's strict secular principles. The decision would be a another blow to Turkey's bid to join the EU, after French and German criticisms of the hostile trade relations [JURIST report] between Turkey the divided island of Cyprus [CIA backgrounder]. Other stumbling blocks [JURIST report] have included the ban on women wearing headscarves [JURIST report] at universities, which was lifted earlier this year, and the use of Article 301 [Amnesty backgrounder; JURIST news archive] of Turkey's Penal Code [text, in Turkish], which makes insulting "Turkishness" a crime, to silence government critics. AP has more.