The Supreme Court will pass an order on July 12 on two petitions filed by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia seeking review of its earlier order that asked the High Court to hear and dispose of her appeal in Zia Orphanage Trust Corruption case within July 31.
A four-member Bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain fixed the date after concluding hearing on the review petitions.
In her review petitions, Khaleda said, the Appellate Division cannot fix any date for the HC to hear or dispose of any appeal as per the Constitution.
The apex court on May 16 upheld the High Court
order that granted four-month bail to Khaleda Zia in Zia Orphanage Trust case in which she was sentenced to five years imprisonment.
The same day, the SC ordered the High Court Bench led by Justice M Enayetur Rahim to hear and dispose of by July 31 the appeal of Khaleda against the lower court verdict that gave her the sentence.
Khaleda in June filed two separate petitions with the Supreme Court seeking review of its order. On February 8, the Special Judge’s Court-5 of Dhaka sentenced Khaleda to five years’ rigorous imprisonment in the graft case.
The court also jailed her elder son Tarique Rahman, now the Acting Chairman of BNP, and four others for 10 years and fined them Tk 2.1 crore, saying all the six convicts would have to pay the fine in equal amounts.
The four other convicts are Qazi Saleemul Huq, an ex-BNP MP from Magura; Sharfuddin Ahmed, a businessman; Mominur Rahman, a cousin of Tarique; and Kamal Uddin Siddique, former Principal Secretary.
Of them, Mominur and Kamal are on the run while Sallemul and Sharfuddin landed in jail on February 8. The sentence will be effective from the day of their arrest or surrender.
The ACC filed the case with Ramna police in July 2008, accusing the six of misappropriating over Tk 2.1 crore that came from a foreign bank as grants for orphans.
