Khaleda's trial to begin at jail

Staff Correspondent: Makeshift special court for the trial of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in Zia Charitable Trust graft case will set up in old central jail where the BNP chief is imprisoned instead of Government Alia Madrasa in the capital's Bakshibazar.

Public Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajal, also lawyer for Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), came up with the information on Tuesday.

The trial in the graft case is being delayed as jail authorities cannot produce Khaleda Zia before the court due to her illness. For this, I appealed to the court to start the case procedures at a makeshift court in old central jail where the BNP chief is imprisoned, the ACC lawyer said.

Meanwhile, Khaleda's lawyers cited the move as 'contrary to law'.

On February 8, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was jailed for five years in Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case and sent to old central jail on Nazimuddin road.

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

On August 8, 2011, the ACC filed the case against the BNP chief and three others for misappropriating Tk3.15 crore from the Zia Charitable Trust Fund.

The others accused in the case are Khaleda’s former political secretary Harris Chowdhury, his former personal assistant Ziaul Islam Munna and former Dhaka City mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka’s personal assistant Monirul Islam Khan.


risingbd/Dhaka/Sept 4, 2018/Mamun Khan/AI