Gulam Rabbani & Quazi Shafiqur Rahman :
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has been jailed for five years after she was found guilty in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.
Her eldest son and BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman and four others, former lawmaker Kazi Salimul Haque Kamal, businessman Sharfuddin Ahmed, Khaleda’s former Principal Secretary Kamal Uddin Siddiqui and BNP founder Ziaur Rahman’s nephew Momenur Rahman, have been given 10 years jail in the case and a fine of Tk 2.10 crore each in the politically significant case ahead of the 11th Parliamentary Election.
Judge of the Special Court-5 in Dhaka, Dr. Md Akhtaruzzaman, sentenced the former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to rigorous imprisonment and said the shorter term was given considering “her health and social status.”
Dr. Akhtaruzzaman said, the prosecution was able to prove undoubtedly the allegation brought against the accused under the penal code 409 and 109.
The judge ordered law enforcers to suspend Khaleda Zia’s personal security men before declaring the verdict.
The judge left the courtroom soon after the deliberation of the verdict.
Just after the departure of the judge, members of the security forces cordoned off Khaleda Zia and barred the lawyers and party leaders to meet with her. After sometime she was taken to the Old Jail at Nazimuddin Road in a white SUV surrounded by a contingent of law enforcers.
Khaleda Zia’s lawyer Advocate Khandker Mahbub Hossain said, “It is a verdict of political revenge. This sentence has been given to separate Khaleda Zia from the people,”
He also said that they will appeal with the High Court against the verdict immediately after receiving the certified copy of the verdict.
Mosharraf Hossain Kajal, lawyer for ACC, said, the defence went to the apex court on several occasions against the charge sheet, taking cognizance of the charge sheet, different judges, depositions of the witnesses and several other processes of the case, but their challenges went in vain.
The defence even sought quashment of the case, but on difference occasions the concerned court rejected their appeals. Summarily, it may be said that they left no stone unturned to save Begum Khaleda Zia from her offences, but they could not succeed, he said.
Prosecution sources told The New Nation, Khaleda Zia will be kept at the old Dhaka Central Jail at Nazimuddin Road.
The judge read a short summary of the 632-page verdict in presence of Khaleda Zia, who was wearing a cream-coloured sharee and wearing a scarf, sitting on a furnished chair across a tea table bearing a tissue box and a quarter litre of bottled water.
She entered the makeshift court premises around 1:40 pm, accompanied by BNP supporters and activists, and entered inside the court at Alia Madrassa playground at 1:52 pm.
Throughout the way, she was escorted by a large number of law enforcers and party activists at the front. Her motorcade witnessed a tension in Moghbazar and Kakrail, on the way to court, where police lobbed tear gas shells to disperse activists amid a standing ban on gathering clamped in Dhaka city yesterday.
Meanwhile, two other accused in the case were already taken to the special court in the morning.
The Anti-Corruption Commission on July 3 in 2008 filed the case with Ramna Police Station accusing six persons, including Khaleda Zia and BNP’s Senior Vice-Chairman and her son Tarique Rahman. The other accused are: former lawmaker Kazi Salimul Haque Kamal, businessman Sharfuddin Ahmed, Khaleda’s former Principal Secretary Kamal Uddin Siddiqui and BNP founder Ziaur Rahman’s nephew Momenur Rahman.
Of them, Kamal Uddin and Momenur are on the run.
On March 21, 2014, a Dhaka court framed charges against the six accused.
According to complainant, a grant of $1,255,000 was transferred from the United Saudi Commercial Bank to the Prime Minister’s Orphanage Fund. The fund was created by the then premier Khaleda Zia shortly before the transfer was made on June 9, 1991.
The complainant alleged that the fund was created as part of the embezzlement scheme, and only Khaleda Zia administered the fund.
As the verdict went against Khaleda Zia, there is a possibility that she might not be able to contest the election slated for December this year.
Strict security measures were taken in the court area on the occasion of the judgement as well as the whole city. RAB, Police, Armed Forces Police and BGB members were deployed in and outside of the court. Some lawyers and journalists faced harassment by the law enforcers.
In her 35 years of political career, Khaleda Zia went to the jail several times but never due to conviction. She was detained several times during the anti-Ershad movement in the 1980s and in 1990s.
During the 2007-2008 tenure of the army-backed Caretaker Government, she was in jail for about a year on charge of corruption.
Khaleda Zia was made Vice-Chairperson of BNP in March 1983 after the assassination of her husband and former President Ziaur Rahman. She became Chairperson of the party on May 10, 1984, a post she is holding still today.
BNP Standing Committee Members Dr Khandker Mosharraf Hossain, Amir Khashru Mahmud Chowdhury, Barrister Moudud Ahmed, Barrister Jamir Uddin Sircar, Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, Vice-Chairman Hafiz Uddin Bhuiyan, Supreme Court Bar President Advocate Zainul Abedin and Secretary Barrister A M Mahbub Uddin Khokan were present at the courtroom during delivering the verdict.
After the verdict BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia was taken to the premises of the old Central Jail in Nazimuddin Road. She will be kept at the daycare centre at the old central jail.
Khaleda Zia, who is being accompanied by her domestic help, was taken to the jail in a white SUV surrounded by a contingent of law enforcers from the Special Court at Bakshibazar.
Meanwhile, the same court completed recording the statements of the witnesses in the Zia Charitable Trust case. The last part of the hearings are scheduled be completed on February 25 and 26.
