Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) has granted BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia leave to appeal against her 10-year prison sentence in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case, issued by the High Court. The court also stayed her sentence.
On Monday (11 November), a three-member bench led by Senior Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam of the Appellate Division passed this order, directing that case summaries be submitted within two weeks.
Earlier, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) asserted that no funds were misappropriated from the Zia Orphanage Trust.
On 4 November, Justice Md Rezaul Haque, chamber judge of the Appellate Division, had fixed 10 November for a hearing of Khaleda Zia's petitions seeking leave to appeal.
Khaleda Zia submitted two petitions for leave to appeal before the Appellate Division on 14 March 2019.
On 8 February 2018, Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman, judge of Special Judge Court-5 in Dhaka, which had been temporarily set up at the Department of Prisons' parade ground in Bakshibazar, sentenced Khaleda Zia to five years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust case.
Simultaneously, her son and BNP Acting Chairperson Tarique Rahman, along with former Magura MP Kazi Salimul Haque Kamal, businessman Sharfuddin Ahmed, Dr Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, and Mominur Rahman, were each sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment.
On 20 February of that year, Khaleda Zia filed an appeal with the relevant branch of the High Court.
On 28 March, the High Court issued a rule in response to a petition by the ACC seeking an enhancement of Khaleda Zia’s sentence.
On 30 October 2018, the High Court Bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman upheld the rule and extended Khaleda Zia's prison term from five years to 10 years.
Additionally, Khaleda Zia’s appeals seeking release from the five-year sentence and the appeals by former Magura MP Kazi Salimul Haque Kamal and businessman Sharfuddin Ahmed against their 10-year terms were rejected by the court.
On 29 October 2018, one day before the High Court’s verdict, Judge Md Akhtaruzzaman of Special Judge Court-5, located in Room 7 of the administrative building of the Old Central Jail, sentenced Khaleda Zia to seven years' imprisonment in the Zia Charitable Trust case.
She was also fined Tk10 lakh, with an additional six months' imprisonment for non-payment.
The three other defendants received the same punishment.
Khaleda Zia later appealed this verdict in the High Court on 18 November of the same year.
On 4 November, the High Court moved to hear her appeal against the seven-year sentence in the Zia Charitable Trust case and approved her application to prepare case documents at her expense.
The appeal will be heard once these are ready.
Although the former prime minister’s sentences in these two cases were previously commuted by the president, her legal team contends that the appeal process must proceed.
According to her lawyers, “The BNP Chairperson’s sentence has been commuted by the president, but she chose not to rely on clemency and instead instructed her legal team to fight the case on legal grounds, as she maintains her innocence.”
