DHAKA, Nov 27: Former Bangladesh Prime Minster Khaleda Zia was on Wednesday acquitted in a graft case by the country’s High Court.
Khaleda, chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BJP), was absolved of all charges in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case in which she had been sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment by a lower court on October 29, 2018.
The HC on Wednesday rejected the trial court verdict that sentenced Khaleda and two others in the case, The Daily Star reported.
On April 30, 2019, another HC bench accepted Khaleda’s appeal, challenging her conviction and imprisonment in the graft case and also stayed a portion of the lower court verdict that fined her Tk 10 lakh.
The other three convicted accused included the former PM’s then political secretary Harris Chowdhury (now dead).
The Anti-corruption Commission filed the case with Tejgaon Police Station on August 8, 2011, accusing four people, including Khaleda, of abusing power to raise funds for the trust from unknown sources.
Khaleda, who was under house arrest for the last five years, was released on August 6 this year after the president condoned her punishment and granted clemency in two cases, a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country.
Khaleda, on February 8, 2018, was sent to jail after a special court in Dhaka sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case. The High Court later doubled her five-year jail term. (UNI)
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