The High Court yesterday doubled the jail term handed to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in the Zia Orphanage Trust Corruption case to ten years after dismissing an appeal filed by her and two fellow convicts.
Khaleda, Kazi Salimul Haque and Sharfuddin Ahmed had all challenged their conviction order given by a trial court in the graft case in February.
Rather than show leniency, however, the bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman enhanced Khaleda’s jail term in response to a revision petition filed by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC).
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam – representing the state – said the BNP chief will now serve a total of 17 years behind bars, as the sentence will run separately to the seven-year term she was given on Monday in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case.
If Khaleda Zia serves both sentences in full, she will be 90 years old before she is eligible for release.
BNP lawyer Khondokar Mahbub Hossain, however, said there is scope to file a petition for her to serve the two jail terms concurrently.
“If the court approves the petition, then she can serve both the sentences at the same time,” he said. “We will pray to the court to allow her to do so.”
Tuesday’s ruling came after the court scrapped three appeals filed by the convicts and pronounced a High Court rule absolute, which was issued in response to the ACC’s revision petition.
“It means that Khaleda Zia will not be able to take part in the upcoming national election unless this sentence is scrapped by the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division,” ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told reporters shortly after the verdict.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said Khaleda will remain legally unfit to run for the electoral race - even if the Apex court stays the High Court’s verdict in future.
“In that case, the BNP chief will only be freed from the jail for time being,” he said.
"It is a message for the politicians that anyone who commits crime while in power, are not above the law.”
BNP reaction
Khaleda’s main counsels who took part in the appeal hearings - including A J Mohammad Ali, Zainul Abedin, and Abdur Rezak Khan - were not present in the court on the day of the verdict.
However, pro-BNP lawyers of the Bangladesh Supreme Court Bar Association gave their reactions soon after the verdict was pronounced.
Led by their president, Zainul Abedin, the pro-BNP lawyers used a press conference to announce a boycott of the High Court and Appellate division’s proceedings from 9am to 1pm today in protest at the verdict.
BNP claims the case is a plot to keep its party chief and her family out of politics.
“We are surprised over the unusual verdict, which reflects the government’s desire,” the party’s secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, said in another press conference yesterday.
Why was Khaleda’s jail term doubled?
The trial court in February convicted the BNP chief under the Penal Code’s section 409, which talks about the criminal breach of trust by a public servant.
According to the section, anyone entrusted with property or with any dominion over property in their capacity as a public servant who commits a criminal breach of trust in respect of that property, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 10 years.
Though accusations were proved beyond doubt, the trial court handed down Khaleda a lesser punishment considering her age and social status.
The High Court in its short verdict did not mention any grounds for doubling the jail term of the former premier.
However, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told reporters that Khaleda’s conviction cannot be lighter than others as she was the prime accused in the case and the bank account through which the transactions were made was in Khaleda’s name.
“I believe, on this ground her conviction was levelled with the others,” he said.
ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan also said the revision petition was filed on the same ground that Khaleda should not get a lesser punishment as the main accused.
They had prayed for her life-term imprisonment.
The case against Khaleda
The Zia Orphanage Trust was set up by Khaleda Zia’s sons and one of her nephews and was named after her late husband, the former Bangladesh president Ziaur Rahman. It was registered on September 5, 1993, when Khaleda was the prime minister.
The ACC accused Khaleda, and five others, of embezzling a Tk2.1 crore in donations meant for the orphanage trust in a case filed with Ramna police in July 2008.
According to case documents, the Prime Minister’s Orphanage Fund, solely administered by Khaleda, was hastily formed shortly before receiving a grant of $1,255,000 from the United Saudi Commercial Bank in June 1991.
The money was deposited as a fixed deposit receipt with Khaleda’s permission and from this, Tk2.33 crore was later allocated to the Zia Orphanage Trust. Tarique was the trust’s settlor.
Between November 1993 and March 2007, a total of Tk2.10 crore was withdrawn by the other accused.
On February 8 this year, Khaleda was sentenced to five years jail and her son Tarique Rahman and four others – former principal secretary Kamal Uddin Siddique, Ziaur Rahman’s nephew Mominur Rahman, and Salimul and Sharfuddin – were given 10 year terms.
Three of those – Tarique, Mominur and Kamal Uddin – are still absconding and so cannot file appeals against the trial court’s verdict.
The ACC later filed the review petition seeking an increase to the BNP chairperson’s jail term since she was the main accused.
Tuesday’s verdict means that all six convicts will have to serve ten-year jail terms in the case.
Is this her first time in jail?
Khaleda was Bangladesh’s first female prime minister and is the first ever former prime minister in Bangladesh’s history to be convicted of a crime.
The 73-year-old has spent time in jail on several occasions during her long political career, but this is the first time she has been convicted of a crime.
During the 2007-2008 tenure of the army-backed caretaker government, she was in jail for about a year on charges of corruption.