The High Court has extended BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s bail for one year in two cases filed against her in 2015 and 2016.
The bench of Justice Muhammad Abdul Hafiz and Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo issued the order on Tuesday.
Barrister Kaiser Kamal, accompanied by other BNP lawyers, stood for Khalda Zia.
On December 24, 2015, a defamation case was filed against the BNP chairperson in Narail in light of her comments about the number of freedom fighters who took part in the War of Liberation in 1971.
Another case was filed in Dhaka the next year, on August 23, 2016, on the charge of expressing “contradictory” opinions regarding Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The High Court granted her a six-month bail in the cases on August 13 and 14. The bails were extended earlier on February 5, 2018.
The former prime minister has been serving 17 years’ imprisonment in Old Dhaka Central Jail in another two cases, the Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust graft cases since February last year.
