The Supreme Court has extended its previous order that stayed the High Court order granting bail to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in two cases filed in Cumilla.
A three-member bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the order on Thursday and asked the state counsel to file regular leave-to-appeal-petition against the HC order by June 24 - when It will reopen after Eid holidays.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam stood for the state while Advocate Zainul Abedin, AJ Mohammad Ali and Khandaker Mahbub Hossain for Khaleda, reports UNB.
Earlier, the BNP leaders hoped that Khaleda would be released before the Eid after getting bail in the Zia Orphanage Trust case from the top court. That possibility is now waning.
On May 16, the Appellate Division upheld an HC order that granted bail to Khaleda for four months in the corruption case in which she was jailed for five years.
But she was not released due to arrest orders in a number of other cases, including two violence cases in Cumilla, according to a bdnews24 report.
The BNP lawyers appealed to the SC for getting her bail from those cases.
On May 28, the High Court granted interim bail in two violence cases that involve the firebombing of a bus in Cumilla and the anti-terror case over illegal explosives, raising BNP’s hope to get their leader released from the jail.
Hours after the HC granted bail to the BNP chief, the state filed two petitions with the SC seeking a stay on the HC bail orders in violence cases.