The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition by BNP chief Khaleda Zia’s lawyers to appeal against the decision to proceed with the Zia Charitable Trust graft case in her absence.
The order came on the day when the Special Judge Court-5 of Dhaka is scheduled to pronounce its verdict in the same case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Khaleda Zia’s lawyer Advocate Zainul Abedin said, “We believed our concerns would be redressed by the Supreme Court after the High Court decision. But the situation was not remedied. Khaleda Zia is not receiving her due anywhere.”
Asked whether permission would be sought to review the decision, he said: “We will discuss this with our senior members. I believe it should be reviewed.”
Khaleda Zia was represented by AJ Mohammad Ali, Zainul Abedin, Mahbub Uddin Khokon, Kaisar Kamal and AKM Ehsanur Rahman at the hearing. Attorney General Mahbubey Alam represented the state, while Khurshid Alam Khan represented the Anti-Corruption Commission.”
Judge Md Akhtaruzzaman, who sentenced Khaleda to five years in prison in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case in February, will deliver the verdict in the Charitable Trust graft case at the court set up inside the old jailhouse on Nazimuddin Road sometime after 11:00 am.
The lawyers for the BNP chief had sought the Supreme Court’s permission to challenge the High Court order, which allowed the special judge to continue the trial in her absence.
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, however, scrapped their plea on Monday morning and allowed the trial court verdict to proceed.
Khaleda had skipped appearances in the case citing illness even though the courtroom was shifted to the jail following government orders.
She was transferred to the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University from the jailhouse on October 6 for treatment under the prison authorities’ supervision following High Court orders.
As the suspect is in jail, the verdict has to be read out in her presence.
As Mosharraf Hossain Kajol, the lawyer for the Anti-Corruption Commission or ACC, which started the case, was asked whether the verdict will be deferred if the authorities fail to present her in court, he replied: “She will be produced in the court by any means necessary.”
The former prime minister and four others accused in the case can be sentenced up to seven years in jail if found guilty of embezzling Tk 31.54 million through the trust.
The BNP maintains that the Awami League government has “political interests” in the case, which they claim was started on “false charges”.
After the court set the verdict date on October 10, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir alleged the judge was acting on government orders and it was proof that the Awami League government has destroyed the judiciary.
The ACC prosecuted Khaleda and three others in 2010 for ‘embezzling Tk 31.54 million from the charitable trust’ named after BNP founder and Khaleda’s late husband former president Ziaur Rahman.
Khaleda’s former political affairs secretary Harris Chowdhury, his former aide and former BIWTA acting director Ziaul Islam Munna, and former Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka’s personal secretary Monirul Islam Khan are the three others accused in the case.
Harris has been on the run since the 2007 state of emergency. Believed to be abroad now, he was recently sentenced to life in prison along with Khaleda’s son and BNP acting chief Tarique Rahman in the Aug 21, 2004 grenade attack case.
Harris’ former assistant personal secretary Munna and Khoka’s former aide Monirul had been out on bail, but the court ordered them to jail last month.
“The entire country is now a prison. Opposition leaders are forced from their homes as false cases pile up against them,” Khaleda had said in the statement in her defence, which was littered with comments on the country’s politics.
“The case against me is a result of a political vendetta,” she had added.
She and the three others are charged with using undisclosed income to buy over 30,200 square feet of prime land in the capital's Kakrail from one Suraiya Khanam in January 2005 for Tk 65.2 million from the Zia Charitable Trust.
The trust, of which Khaleda was chairperson, did not have any known source of income for around Tk 12.5 million – a sum that made up part of the payment for the land purchased in Dhaka, according to the ACC.
Transactions from illegal sources totalling over Tk 31.54 million using the name of the trust were found in investigation into the case, the ACC alleges.
It says Khaleda, Harris, Munna and Monirul collected, deposited and spent the money illegally in collusion by using their positions in the government.
