Zubaida Rahman gets bail in graft case

Dr Zubaida Rahman, wife of BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, has secured bail from the High Court in a corruption case in which she was sentenced to three-year imprisonment.

The court also accepted Zubaida Rahman’s appeal for hearing.

An HC bench of Justice Md Khasruzzaman issued the order on Wednesday (May 14).

Senior lawyer SM Shahjahan, Barrister AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon and Barrister Kayser Kamal were present in the court on behalf of the petition during the hearing.

The same court on Tuesday condoned her (Zubaida) 587 days’ delay for filing the appeal in the case.

On August 2, 2023, a Dhaka court sentenced Tarique to nine years in prison and Zubaida to three years in a case over amassing assets through illegal means and concealing information.

On September 22 last year, the Security Services Division under the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a gazette suspending Zubaida’s sentence for one year, with the consent of the Ministry of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs, following her petition.

She had left the country with her husband for London on September 11, 2008, and stayed there for around 17 years, finally returning home on May 6 this year.

She submitted the appeal, which was included in the court’s cause list on Tuesday.

The ACC filed the case against three people, including the couple, on September 26, 2007, with Dhaka’s Kafrul police station for concealing wealth information and amassing illegal assets.

The charges were pressed the following year.