BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has filed an appeal with the High Court challenging a trial court verdict that sentenced her to seven years in prison in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case last month.
Her lawyer Barrister Nawshad Jamir on Sunday filed the appeal, asking the court to scrap the verdict, stay the fine imposed on her and grant her bail, reports UNB.
He said: "We have submitted a 41-page appeal to the High Court seeking Khaleda Zia’s acquittal and bail. With it, the trial court's 632-page verdict was also attached. We have mentioned 20 grounds in the appeal as well.”
According to him, 11 of those grounds are -
1. Zia Charitable Trust is a private trust. Khaleda Zia did not interfere in it during her time as the prime minister and the Prevention of Corruption Act,1947 is not applicable in this case.
2. The application form for opening the Zia Charitable Trust’s account had Khaleda’s signature, but it did not contain her designation or official seal of the prime minister. None of the accounts of the trust do not have Khaleda’s name as the prime minister. She ran the trust personally.
3. There was no definite evidence against Khaleda in this case. She was charged and convicted in the case based on assumption.
4. The state failed to prove the allegation of illegal transactions in the trust’s fund.
5. The investigation in this case had started following a complaint from one Dr Farzana Ahmed. But she was neither produced as a prosecution witness nor was her written statement submitted in the court.
6. Statements of the state’s witnesses showed that the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) conducted the investigation into the allegations in a deliberate and motivated manner.
7. The court, set up inside the prison, secretly conducted the trial, convicted her and gave the sentence – this is illegal.
8. ACC do not have the jurisdiction to file a case against the Zia Charitable Trust as it’s a personal trust established in the name of Ziaur Rahman and in line with the Trusts Act, 1882.
9. The trial court’s findings on the Tk1.35 crore pay order in the case are not consistent with the original case documents.
10. The documentary evidence and statements of the prosecution witnesses prove that Metro Makers and Developers Ltd had applied five pay orders related to the case.
11. The case investigation officer’s testimony proves that the Metro Makers managing director’s statement regarding the five pay orders is completely false.
Barrister Nawshad, however, declined to share the nine other grounds in the appeal for the sake of the further case proceedings.
“This is a very important case. That is why the remaining nine grounds cannot be released to the media right now,” he added.
Conviction
A special court in Dhaka on October 29 had convicted Khaleda in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case in absentia, sentencing her to seven years of rigorous imprisonment.
The three-time former prime minister, who was undergoing treatment at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital at the time, was fined Tk10 lakh as well, and six months’ additional jail term if she failed to pay.
Apart from her, the court had sentenced Harris Chowdhury, political secretary to then prime minister Khaleda, his assistant personal secretary Ziaul Haq Munna, and Monirul Islam Khan, assistant personal secretary to then Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka, to the same jail term too.
The court also ordered confiscation of the 42 katha of land bought in the trust’s name.
The ACC filed the case against the four at the capital’s Tejgaon police station on August 8, 2011.
The same court on February 8 had also sentenced BNP chief Khaleda to five-year imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.
Her son Tarique Rahman and four others –Kamal Uddin Siddique, Kazi Salimul Haque, Sharfuddin Ahmed and Ziaur Rahman’s nephew Mominur Rahman – were sentenced to 10 year in prison in this case too.
However, the High Court on October 30 dismissed Khaleda’s appeal in this case and doubled her punishment to 10-year imprisonment.
