The Supreme Court yesterday stayed until May 7 the trial proceedings against former BNP law minister Moudud Ahmed in Niko corruption case following a petition filed by him.

He sought a stay on a High Court verdict that cleared the way for a lower court to resume the case's trial proceedings. The chamber judge sent the stay petition to the full bench of the Appellate Division for its hearing on May 7.

The ACC filed the case in 2007 over charges that BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and several others abused power to award a gas exploration and extraction deal to Canadian company Niko when she was prime minister from 2001 to 2006.