News Desk : dhakamirror.com
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Monday stayed a 2018 High Court ruling that had extended Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia’s prison sentence from five years to 10 years in the Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Orphanage Trust case.
A three-member Appellate Division bench led by Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam granted the stay, temporarily halting the High Court’s order that had increased the trial court’s sentence and rejected Khaleda’s appeal seeking acquittal from embezzlement charges.
The Apex Court, simplifying the legal process for the former prime minister, also allowed her to file an appeal against the High Court decision without the need to prepare a paper-book.
Khaleda’s legal team was instructed to submit a concise argument on the appeal within two weeks.
On the expiry of two weeks, the team will have to seek a date from the chamber judge for holding a hearing on the appeal.
The High Court, responding to a petition submitted by the Anti-Corruption Commission, doubled Khaleda’s prison sentence on October 30, 2018,
On February 8, 2018, a Dhaka Special Judge’s Court sentenced Khaleda to five years and her son, Tarique Rahman, along with others, to varying prison terms over the alleged misappropriation of Tk 2.10 crore from the orphanage trust.
On Sunday, the ACC’s counsel, Asif Hasan, informed the Appellate Division that no evidence of fund misappropriation was found, and the Tk 2.10 crore, along with interest, remained intact in the trust’s account.
This revision of the ACC’s stance now supports Khaleda who is seeking acquittal.
The case, filed in 2008 during a military-backed caretaker government, accused Khaleda of misusing her position as prime minister from 1991 to 1996 to divert Tk 2.10 crore out of Tk 4.44 crore donated by the Saudi king.
The allegation claimed that the funds were transferred to a private account instead of being used for the orphanage.
The president on August 6, a day after the fall of the Awami League regime amid a student-mass uprising, remitted Khaleda’s sentences in both the Zia Orphanage and Zia Charitable Trust cases.
Khaleda currently faces 16 other cases, while 19 cases against her were dismissed after the fall of the AL regime on August 5.
Her legal team argued that the president had previously remitted her sentences in both the Zia Orphanage and Zia Charitable Trust cases, where she had received a seven-year sentence.
Her appeal in the Zia Charitable Trust case was accepted for hearing by the High Court on November 3.
During proceedings on Monday, Khaleda’s lawyers, Zainul Abedin and Kayser Kamal, argued that Khaleda sought a legal, not administrative, resolution.
They said that the case was politically motivated.
Attorney general Md Asaduzzaman suggested that the case was politically charged, targeting Khaleda and her family under the caretaker and subsequent Awami League governments, despite her lack of knowledge and involvement with the fund.
In March 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the Awami League government conditionally and temporarily released Khaleda on humanitarian grounds due to her poor health. Her release period was extended multiple times until remitting her sentences by the president.
– Input from New Age was used in this article.
