Bringing sedition charge against Khaleda okayed

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia is likely to be sued today for sedition, as the home ministry has approved a prayer for bringing the charge against her for remarks on the number of Liberation War martyrs.

“I will file a case against Khaleda Zia with a Dhaka court at 9:00am tomorrow [today]," Momtaz Uddin Ahmad Mehedi, a Supreme Court lawyer, told The Daily Star over phone yesterday.

He got the permission from the home ministry on January 21. As per the rule, the government's permission is a must to lodge a sedition case.

Khaleda, at a programme on December 21 last year, said, “There are controversies over how many were martyred in the Liberation War. There are also many books and documents on the controversies.”

Her comments sparked protest among different quarters and on social media.  

Two days after her comments, Momtaz, also a former secretary of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), sent a legal notice to Khaleda, asking her to apologise to the nation for her remarks.

In the notice, he also demanded that the BNP chief withdraw her statement within seven days. As Khaleda did not respond, he sought the home ministry's consent to file a sedition case against her.

Confirming the permission for filing the case, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal at a programme in the capital yesterday said they gave a guideline on filing of sedition charges. 

Meanwhile, BNP leader and SCBA President Khandker Mahbub Hossain yesterday claimed that there is no element of sedition in the statement of Khaleda.

Under the relevant law, sedition takes place if anybody attempts to depose the government or makes statement provoking the people against the government, but Khaleda has not done so by her statement, he told reporters at his SCBA office.

Mahbub, an adviser to the BNP chief, said the government was driven by emotion when it gave the approval to file a sedition case against Khaleda.

He also said the “authentic number” of the martyrs whose blood has brought the independence of the country should be known to all.