Conviction for Graft: Khaleda may file appeals this week

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia may file separate appeals this week challenging her conviction and jail sentence in the Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust graft cases with an aim to contest the upcoming parliamentary polls.

“We will file separate appeals on behalf of Khaleda Zia in connection with the Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust cases within this week for her acquittal. If the appeals are filed, Khaleda Zia can contest the upcoming national election,” Advocate Zainul Abedin, a BNP leader and lawyer for his chief, told The Daily Star on Friday.

He said the defence was now examining the lower court judgement that sentenced Khaleda to seven-year imprisonment in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case on October 29.

He added the grounds of the appeal might include that Khaleda was not involved in corruption and that she was convicted and jailed to cause her political harassment. There was no evidence for convicting or sentencing her in the case, he claimed.

Zainul, also a vice-chairman of BNP and president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, said they would move an appeal on behalf of Khaleda before the Appellate Division challenging the HC verdict that enhanced her punishment from five-year imprisonment to 10 years in the Zia Orphanage Trust case.

“If we don't get the certified copy of the High Court verdict soon, we will move a criminal miscellaneous petition [known as provisional leave to appeal] before the apex court seeking a stay on the High Court verdict in the Zia Orphanage Trust case,” he said.

The lawyer further said there would be no legal bar on Khaleda from submitting nomination papers and contesting the national polls once the appeals are filed.

A special court in Dhaka on October 29 convicted Khaleda in connection with the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case and sentenced her to seven-year rigorous imprisonment in her absence.

The court also sentenced Harris Chowdhury, political secretary to the then prime minister Khaleda, his assistant personal secretary Ziaul Haq Munna, and Monirul Islam Khan, assistant personal secretary of then Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, to the same jail term.

The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the Zia Charitable Trust case against Khaleda, Harris, Ziaul and Monirul with Tejgaon police on August 8, 2011.

The BNP chief landed in jail being sentenced to five-year imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust case by the same special court on February 8 this year.

The HC on October 30 enhanced her punishment to 10 years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case after dismissing her appeal.

The same day, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan claimed there was no scope for Khaleda to contest the upcoming polls unless she was acquitted.

Law Minister Anisul Huq, however, referred to previous verdicts delivered by the SC on eligibility of a convict to contest the parliamentary polls and said the court would decide about Khaleda's eligibility to candidacy.