Appeal hearing against Khaleda Zia’s acquittal on March 2
The court has fixed March 2 for hearing the appeal filed by the state and the ACC against the High Court’s verdict acquitting BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia from a seven-year prison sentence in the Zia Charitable Trust case.
A three-judge appeal bench led by Senior Justice Md. Ashfaqul Islam of the Appellate Division has fixed the hearing date for this Sunday.
The state appealed to the Appellate Division against the verdict of acquitting Khaleda Zia on February 16.
Earlier, the High Court acquitted BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in the Zia Charitable Trust case on November 27 last year. The High Court bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain gave the verdict.
In the verdict, Khaleda Zia, Haris Chowdhury’s then private secretary Ziaul Islam and former mayor Sadeq Hossain Khoka’s private secretary Monirul Islam Khan were also acquitted in the case.
Senior lawyer Zainul Abedin and lawyer Barrister Kaiser Kamal represented Khaleda Zia in the High Court. Lawyer Asif Hasan represented the ACC.
After the full copy of the High Court’s verdict in this case was published, the state filed a leave to appeal (application for permission to appeal) in the Appellate Division.
On October 29, 2018, Judge Md. Akhtaruzzaman (now a judge of the High Court Division) of the Dhaka Special Judge’s Court-5, established in room number 7 of the administrative building of the Central Jail in Old Dhaka, sentenced Khaleda Zia to seven years in prison in the Zia Charitable Trust case. At the same time, she was fined Tk 1 million and sentenced to another six months in prison in default. The other three accused in the case were also sentenced to the same sentence.
The other three accused who were convicted are former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s then political secretary Haris Chowdhury (late), Haris Chowdhury’s then private secretary Ziaul Islam Munna, and Monirul Islam Khan, private secretary to former mayor of the undivided Dhaka City Corporation, the late Sadeq Hossain Khoka. Haris Chowdhury was absconding at that time. He later passed away. The remaining accused appealed to the High Court.
On August 8, 2010, a case was filed against the Zia Charitable Trust at Tejgaon Police Station. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case on charges of illegally transacting Tk 3.15 crore 43 lakh in the name of the trust.
After the investigation, the ACC filed a chargesheet against Khaleda Zia and four others in the court in 2012. On March 19, 2014, the court framed charges against Khaleda and four accused. After the testimony process was completed, the verdict was announced on October 19, 2018, after the ACC presented its arguments in the case.
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