The High Court rejected the pleas of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia to revoke the lower court orders indicting her in two corruption cases involving Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust, yesterday.
As a result of the orders passed by the bench of Justice Borhanuddin and Justice KM Kamrul Kader, there is no bar to starting the trials against the former prime minister.
However, the defence lawyers said they would move the Appellate Division against the High Court orders.
The presence of a good number of law enforcers on the Supreme Court premises hinted that the petitions would be rejected, alleged Khandker Mahbub Hossain, Khaleda’s lawyer and one of the advisers.
The hearing on the petitions was held for three days, ending on Sunday.
Khandker Mahbub, Moudud Ahmed and AJ Mohammad Ali contended for Khaleda, while Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and the Anti-Corruption Commission’s counsel Khurshid Alam Khan opposed the pleas.
On March 19, Judge Basudev Roy of the Dhaka’s Third Special Judge’s Court passed the indictment orders against Khaleda.
As yesterday was the date set for the orders, on April 21 the lower court fixed May 21 for the start of the trials with depositions of prosecution witnesses.
Six people, including Khaleda and her elder son Tarique Rahman, have been indicted in the Zia Orphanage Trust case for embezzling over Tk2.1 crore by establishing a “fake” trust in 1991.
The lower court also indicted four people, including the BNP chief, in the Zia Charitable Trust case for raising funds by abusing the power of the Prime Minister’s Office during Khaleda’s 2001-2006 tenure.
