ACC to file appeal against Khaleda graft verdict

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) will file an appeal petition with the High Court (HC) against “inadequate” sentence handed down by the trial court to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.

ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star the commission has decided to move an appeal before the HC against the “inadequate” sentence of Khaleda, as the lower court has sentenced other five convicts to 10 years’ imprisonment.

In the appeal, the ACC will pray to the HC to give adequate sentence to Khaleda, a former prime minister, he said, adding that the appeal might be filed within a week.

On February 8, the Special Judge's Court-5 in Dhaka sentenced Khaleda to five years' rigorous imprisonment in the graft case.

The court also jailed her elder son Tarique Rahman, now acting chairman of the 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 ACC 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 grants for orphans.