A counsel for BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has handed over the copy of a letter to a Dhaka court that he had received from Kuwaiti foreign ministry in 2016 regarding the donation made to Zia Orphanage Trust.
Advocate AJ Mohammad Ali delivered the document on Thursday while placing his closing argument in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case at Dhaka Special Judge’s Court 5 in the capital’s Bakshibazar area.
As Judge Md Akhtaruzzaman of the makeshift court asked him whether the fund was deposited to the trust, to which Ali responded he had written to the Kuwaiti foreign ministry asking it to give him details about the grants provided and information related to it.
The ministry, in its reply, informed him that the then Kuwaiti Emir made a donation for the trust, and also to help preserve the memories of BNP founder Ziaur Rahman, the lawyer said.
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In the letter, the ministry wrote that the trust was a private one and that the fund was sent to the trust through a Saudi Arabian bank, he further said, adding, the copy of the letter was notarised in Dhaka. Ali, the third defence lawyer to place closing argument, alleged that the case docket was prepared on fabricated and false information. He also said the prosecution failed to produce any document related to the fund carrying Khaleda’s signature, before the court. After the seventh day of closing argument by the defence, the court adjourned the hearing in the case till January 10 after Ali presented his argument between 11:55am and 3:10pm. Earlier in the day, Khaleda appeared before the court around 11:50am, amid tight security. The Anti-Corruption Commission had filed the case on July 3, 2008, accusing Khaleda, her son Tarique Rahman, and four others of embezzling more than Tk 2.1 crore through forming the trust.
