Khaleda Zia jailed for 5 years

Staff Correspondent:  Bangladesh Nationalist Party Chairperson Khaleda Zia has been jailed for five years in Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.
 

Khaleda Zia’s son and BNP Vice Chairman Tarique Rahman and four others have been jailed for 10 years.

The court also fined them Tk two crore, 10 lakh and 71 thousand.

Judge Md Akhtaruzzaman of Dhaka’s Fifth Special Judge’s Court delivered the verdict on Thursday noon in the graft case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) during the last army-backed caretaker government in 2008.

Khaleda Zia, also a former prime minister, started for the court from her Gulshan residence around 11:45am amid a tight security and reached around 1.40pm the makeshift court set up at Bakshibazar in the capital.

The other convicted are former lawmaker Qazi Salimul Haque Kamal, businessman Sharfuddin Ahmed, Dr Kamal Uddin Siddiqui and Khaleda’s nephew Mominur Rahman.

After recording testimonies of 32 prosecution witnesses and arguments of both prosecution and defence lawyers during hearings, the court on January 24 set February 8 for delivering the judgment.

The special judge’s court was set up at the Parade Ground of Dhaka Central Jail Directorate at Bakshibazar in the capital to try the graft case.

ACC lodged Zia Orphanage Trust graft case against BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia and five others with Ramna Police Station on July 3, 2008, for embezzling Taka 2.10 crore meant for the orphans.

Qazi Salimul Haque Kamal and businessman Sharfuddin Ahmed were brought to the court premises.

Verdict against three other accused —Tarique Rahman, Kamal Uddin Siddiqui and Mominur Rahman was delivered in their absence.

Ahead of the verdict, the government tightened security across the country arresting several thousand BNP leaders and activists and banning any gathering and procession in Dhaka.

A five-tier security was enforced and several hundred police personnel were deployed in and around the court premises.

risingbd/Dhaka/Feb 8, 2018/Mamun/Mukul