SC verdict on appeals against Khaleda’s bail tomorrow

The Supreme Court (SC) will deliver tomorrow a verdict on the appeals against the High Court order that granted bail to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in the Zia Orphanage Trust Corruption case.

The appeals have been included in the apex’s court’s cause-list for tomorrow.

The High Court (HC) on March 12 had granted bail to Khaleda, now in jail, in the graft case in which she was convicted and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment by the trial court.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the government moved separate appeals before the Appellate Divisions of the SC challenging the HC order of bail.

After concluding hearing arguments, a four-member bench of the appellate division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain on May 9 fixed May 15 (Tuesday) for delivering verdict on the appeals.

Contacted, Khaleda’s lawyer barrister Kayser Kamal expressed hope that the SC will grant bail to his client considering her old age, health condition, short sentence and social status.

“We expect that she (Khaleda) will get bail from the SC. The apex court will consider the instances we have provided to this court including her old age, illness, short period of sentence and social status that she is a former prime minister of the country for three times and she is now the chief of the largest political party,” he said.

ACC’s lawyer advocate Khurshid Alam Khan said he hoped that the SC will allow the ACC’s appeal against the HC order that granted bail to Khaleda.

On February 8, Special Judge's Court-5 of Dhaka sentenced Khaleda to five years' rigorous imprisonment after it had found her and five others guilty in the graft case.

The court also sentenced Khaleda's elder son Tarique Rahman, now the acting chairman of BNP, and four others to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment each, and fined them a total of Tk 2.10 crore, saying that all the six convicts have to pay the fine in equal amounts.

The ACC had 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.