Khaleda’s bail decider Sunday

The Supreme Court is set to pass an order on Sunday over four separate petitions regarding the bail granted to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.

Among the four petitions, two were filed challenging the High Court bail order, and the rest two for vacating the apex court order that stayed her bail.

All the four petitions have been included as item Nos 9 and 10 in Sunday’s cause list of the four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, according to the apex court’s website. 

On Thursday, the government and the Anti-Corruption Commission filed two separate leave-to-appeal petitions with the SC challenging the High Court order that granted bail to Khaleda Zia in Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.

The attorney general's office and the ACC both submitted the petitions also seeking extension of the SC order that stayed the HC's bail order till Sunday.

Earlier on Wednesday (March 14), Khaleda Zia filed two separate petitions with the SC for vacating its order that stayed the HC order of bail to her in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case in which she was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

Hours before she filed the two petitions on that day, the SC stayed till Sunday the HC order that granted her bail.Upon receiving the petitions, SC Chamber Judge Hasan Foez Siddique forwarded them to the apex court's full bench for hearing on Sunday.

In the petition, Khaleda said her lawyers didn't get scope for placing arguments at the SC before it stayed the HC order of bail, Sagir Hossain Leon, a counsel for Khaleda, told this newspaper.

Citing from the petitions, he said Khaleda was given a short sentence of five years' imprisonment, and she has been in jail since February 8. Courts have a long tradition of granting bail to a convict or an accused if the person is a woman. Khaleda is now 73, and she has been suffering from various chronic degenerative medical conditions.