Khaleda unwilling to appear before court, bail decision Thursday

Staff Correspondent: A special court set up at the old Dhaka central jail on Nazimuddin Road today set tomorrow (Thursday) to hold a hearing on the petition filed for extending bail to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.

Judge Md Akhteruzzaman of the Special Judge Court-5 fixed the day after the prosecution informed the court about Khaleda Zia’s unwillingness to appear before it.

The judge said the court will hold a hearing tomorrow on whether it should continue its proceedings in absence of Khaleda Zia.

Earlier, the court set today for placing arguments in the case. But the BNP chairperson was not willing to appear before the court when jail authority wanted to produce her before it.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the Zia Charitable corruption case with Tejgaon Police Station in August 2011, accusing Khaleda and three others of abusing power to raise funds for the trust from unknown sources.

The three other accused are: Harris Chowdhury, political secretary of the then PM Khaleda between 2001 and 2006; Ziaul Islam Munna, assistant private secretary (APS) to Harris; and Monirul Islam Khan, APS of former Dhaka city mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka.

On February 8, the same special court awarded Khaleda five years' rigorous imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case and sentenced her elder son Tarique Rahman, now acting BNP chairman, and four others to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment each.

The court also fined them a total of Tk 2.10 crore, saying all the six convicts have to pay the fine in equal amounts.

The ACC filed the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case with Ramna Police Station in July 2008, accusing the six of misappropriating over Tk 2.1 crore that came from a foreign bank as grants for orphans.


risingbd/Dhaka/Sept 12, 2018/Mamun Khan/AI