Staff Reporter :
BNP leaders and lawyers hoped that party chairperson Khaleda Zia will get bail in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case today as the High Court fixed the day to deliver the order on the bail petition.
The court on Thursday fixed Sunday for passing orders regarding the bail petition of the case over which she was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim set the date for today after Khaleda
Zia’s lawyer Advocate Zainul Abedin prayed to it on Thursday to pass an order on the petition.
The party leaders and activists across the country are waiting for the HC order with patience. But they are also anxious over the order of the petition as the government wants to keep her in jail through showing arrest in other cases like Zia Charitable case.
Advocate Zainul Abedin hoped that the BNP Chairperson will get bail in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case on Sunday.
He expressed the hope while talking with a group of journalists on Friday after a meeting with Khaleda Zia in the jail gate.
Several other lawyers also accompanied Zainul during an hour-long meeting.
Advocate Zainul also said they have discussed with the BNP chief about the progress of her bail process.
“We also expressed hope to our leader that we firmly believe the court will grant her bail on Sunday considering the grounds placed before the court,” he said.
Advocate Zainul told the HC that the bench of Justice Enayetur and Justice Shahidul on February 22 ordered the trial court to send the case records to it within 15 days, which expired on Wednesday.
He said, “The HC has jurisdiction to pass an order on the bail petition of Khaleda Zia even if the case records are not received.”
BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir in several meetings claimed that the case was totally baseless.
Khaleda Zia’s lawyer and the party’s Standing Committee Member Barrister Moudud Ahmed several times claimed that the case is false and based on fake papers. He hoped that his party chief will get bail.
On February 25, the HC bench heard the bail petition of Khaleda and said that it will pass an order on it after receiving the case records from the lower court.
On February 8, Special Judge’s Court-5 of Dhaka sentenced Khaleda Zia to five years’ imprisonment in the graft case.
The court also sentenced Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman, now the acting chairman of BNP, and four others to 10 years’ imprisonment each, and fined them a total of Tk 2.10 crore, saying that all the six convicts have to pay the fine in equal amounts.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) had filed the case with Ramna Police Station in July 2008, accusing the six of misappropriating over Tk 2.1 crore that came from a foreign bank as grant for orphans.
