Staff Reporter :
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Thursday filed a leave to appeal petition with the Supreme Court challenging the High Court (HC) verdict that enhanced her jail term to 10 years from five years in Zia Orphanage Trust Case.
In the petition, Khaleda Zia prayed to the apex court to suspend her punishment and grant her bail in the case.
The Appellate Division is yet to fix any date for hearing the petition.
Citing the petition, Khaleda’s lawyer Barrister Kayser Kamal told reporters that the High Court has enhanced the punishment of Khaleda Zia “unfairly, unjustly and unreasonably as Khaleda did not commit any corruption”.
The High Court delivered the verdict without adequately hearing the argument from her lawyers, Barrister Kayser Kamal alleged.
Following a petition filed by Anti-Corruption Commission, the High Court on October 30 last year increased the punishment of Khaleda Zia to 10 years imprisonment from five years in the graft case.
Khaleda landed in the Old Dhaka Central Jail on February 8 last year after a special court convicted and sentenced her to five years’ rigorous imprisonment in Zia Orphanage Trust Case.
She challenged the verdict on February 20 with the HC, seeking acquittal. Weeks later, the Anti-Corruption Commission, which filed the case in 2008, filed a revision petition with the HC, seeking enhancement of her punishment. The HC on October 30, 2018 enhanced her punishment to 10 years’ imprisonment in the case.
Besides, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was also convicted in Zia Charitable Trust Case and sentenced to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment by a special court on October 29 last year.
