HC scraps ICT case against Khaleda, Tarique
The High Court yesterday scrapped the proceedings of a case filed against three people including BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and her son and party's acting chairman Tarique Rahman in 2016 under section-57 of the Information and Communication Technology (Amendment) Act-2013.
Abdul Kader Sujan, an Awami League leader of Chattogram (South) unit, lodged the case with a court in the district on October 3, 2016 against them for their alleged involvement in issuing a death threat to the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina and defaming Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman via Facebook posts.
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Yesterday, the HC bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain delivered the verdict following a petition filed by Chowdhury Irad Ahmed Siddiky, another accused of the case, in 2017.
Petitioner's lawyer Chowdhury Ishrak Ahmed Siddiky said the HC scrapped the case against the accused on the ground that it was filed on "preposterous allegation" to politically harass them.
Deputy Attorney General Md Jashim Sarker represented the state during hearing of the petition.
On October 30 and 31 this year, the HC has scrapped 12 cases against Khaleda Zia.
The BNP chairperson has been made accused in total 37 separate cases filed during the regimes of the then military backed caretaker government and Sheikh Hasina-led government on different charges including corruption, violence, arson, defamation and sedition.
The lower courts concerned in different districts have earlier dismissed nine defamation cases and the president has granted her clemency in two cases in which she was convicted and sentenced to imprisonments, Barrister Kayser Kamal, a lawyer for Khaleda and BNP's legal affairs secretary, told The Daily Star recently.
He said Khaleda Zia is on bail in all the remaining cases against her.
On November 11, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court stayed a HC verdict that doubled her (Khaleda) five-year jail term in Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.
Khaleda, who was under house arrest for the last five years, was released on August 6 this year after the president pardoned her punishments, a day after prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country in the face of a mass uprising.
On that day, President Mohammed Shahabuddin, exercising his power under Article 49 of the constitution, granted Khaleda clemency in two cases based on the law ministry's recommendation and ordered her release.
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