SC stays Khaleda’s 10-year jail sentence in Orphanage Trust graft case
The court also allowed Khaleda to appeal against the High Court verdict
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has stayed the High Court order that increased the five-year sentence of Khaleda Zia to a 10-year sentence in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.
A three-member Appellate Division bench, headed by acting Chief Justice Ashfaqul Islam, passed the order today in response to two leave-to-appeal petitions filed by Khaleda's lawyers.
The court also allowed Khaleda to appeal against the High Court verdict.
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Filed on 14 March 2019 through her lawyer, Khaleda's leave-to-appeal petitions seek to overturn the High Court's order that extended her prison term from five to 10 years. She has asked the top court to nullify this extended sentence.
Khaleda was initially imprisoned on 8 February 2018, when a special court in Dhaka sentenced her to five years in prison for her involvement in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft incident.
Later, in response to an appeal by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the High Court on 30 October that year increased her sentence to 10 years.
The Zia Orphanage graft case was filed by the ACC in July 2008, accusing Khaleda of misappropriating over Tk2.10 crore that was received as grants for orphans via a foreign bank.
However, on Sunday, an ACC lawyer said no money had been amassed from Zia Orphanage Trust.
The ACC in August 2011 filed another case, the Zia Charitable Trust graft case, with Tejgaon Police Station, accusing four people, including Khaleda, of raising funds for the trust from unknown sources and abusing power.
The 78-year-old former prime minister has long been suffering from various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, kidney, lung, heart, eye problems, and post-Covid complications.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail through an executive order by suspending her sentence on 25 March 2020, on the condition that she would stay at her Gulshan house and not leave the country.
Since then, her release term has been extended every six months following the family's pleas.
On 6 August this year, Khaleda was completely freed by an order of President Mohammed Shahabuddin.
Since the fall of the Awami League government on 5 August this year, several cases filed against Khaleda have been dismissed by the High Court.
