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Zia Orphanage Trust Case

Hearing on Khaleda's appeal starts July 3

Staff Correspondent
The High Court yesterday fixed July 3 for starting the hearing on an appeal filed by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia challenging a lower court verdict that sentenced her to five years' imprisonment in Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.
The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman fixed the date as the Anti-Corruption Commission on Sunday prayed to the court, through its lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan, for the hearing.
The Supreme Court's Appellate Division on May 16 directed the HC bench led by Justice Enayetur Rahim to hear and dispose of her appeal by July 31. The same day (May 16), the apex court upheld the HC order that on March 12 granted her four months' bail.
On February 8, the Special Judge's Court-5 of Dhaka convicted and sentenced Khaleda to five years' imprisonment.
Khaleda on February 20 filed an appeal with the HC challenging the verdict. In the appeal, she prayed to the HC to acquit her of the corruption charge and scrap the lower court verdict, stay her conviction and suspend the five-year prison sentence.
Claiming herself innocent, she mentioned 44 grounds in the 1,222-page appeal. In its verdict, the trial court said Khaleda in her defence statement confessed that she had abused her power. "So, there is no bar to punishing her under section 409 ofPenal Code and 5(2) of Corruption Prevention Act-1947."
The BNP chief in the appeal said, The conviction and sentencing of the appellant [Khaleda] based on grotesque distortion of her statement and such the same is liable to be set aside.”
"... protesters are being killed by mindless shooting if they protest the unjust. Students and teachers are being killed. Are not these abuses of powers? Did I abuse powers?"
She said “under the facts and circumstances of the case the impugned judgement and order of conviction and sentence against her being untenable and unsustainable in law is required to be set aside".
On February 22, the High Court accepted the appeal for its hearing and stayed the part of the lower court order that fined Khaleda Zia for corruption mentioned in the case.
Meanwhile, the BNP chairperson has recently filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking review of its May 16 directive that asked the High Court bench to hear and dispose of her appeal by July 31, Barrister Kayser Kamal, a lawyer for Khaleda, told The Daily Star.
He said the SC is yet to set any date for the hearing.