Khaleda's Cases: BNP turns to British lawyer for advice

The BNP has appointed British lawyer Lord Alex Carlile to assist party chief Khaleda Zia's counsels and help them fight her cases.

The lawyer will also give his opinion on whether international human rights law is being violated throughout the case proceedings, said BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir yesterday.

Carlile is a renowned legal expert in London and also a member of the House of Lords.

“Hiring a foreign counsel doesn't mean Bangladeshi lawyers are incapable,” Fakhrul told journalists at the party's Nayapaltan office.

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia landed in jail on February 8 as a Dhaka court found her guilty of misappropriating a donation fund for the Zia Orphanage Trust.

On Monday, the Supreme Court stayed the High Court order that granted her four months' bail in the case, which saw her sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

She is now facing a total of 34 cases.

To press for her release, the BNP will intensify its ongoing protests while looking for new action programmes, said its leaders.

“The government is not attaching importance to the party's ongoing peaceful demonstrations and we also cannot go for tougher programmes as the government wants us to do so. So we are looking for alternatives,” a senior leader, seeking anonymity, told The Daily Star.

Since Khaleda went to jail, the party has been observing various programmes including hunger strike, mass signature campaign and procession.

“We will continue to hold rallies in divisional headquarters. We are planning to hold rallies in districts to mobilise public opinion to mount pressure on the government,” Moudud Ahmed, party's standing committee member, told this correspondent.

He added their ongoing peaceful protest programmes will be gradually intensified in coming days.

The BNP will also brief the diplomats at the chairperson's Gulshan office this afternoon and hold joint meetings with leaders of different tiers as well as of alliance partners soon.

A senior leader said, “The current political situation is not only confined to BNP and Awami League. Geopolitics is very crucial here. So, international community might have some say.”

On Monday night, some senior BNP leaders held a meeting and analysed the overall situation. They will sit with the vice chairmen, joint secretary generals, organising secretaries and other senior leaders soon to finalise the next course of action.

They decided to make every effort to keep the unity among alliance partners as the government is allegedly trying to split the combine, according to insiders.

Nazrul Islam Khan, standing committee member of the BNP, was given the task of maintaining close contacts with alliance partners.