Dhaka, Mar 14 (Just News): The Supreme Court today stayed till next Sunday the High Court order that granted bail to BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia in Zia Orphanage Trust case.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC led by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the stay order following two separate petitions filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission and government seeking the stay on the HC order on Khaleda Zia’s bail.
The apex court also asked the ACC and government to file two separate leave-to-appeal petitions with the court by Sunday challenging the HC order on bail of Khaleda Zia.
On February 8, the Special Judge's Court-5 of Dhaka sentenced Khaleda Zia to five years' rigorous imprisonment in the graft case.
The court also jailed her elder son Tarique Rahman, now acting chairman of the BNP, and four others for 10 years and fined them Tk 2.1 crore, saying all the six convicts would have to pay the fine in equal amounts.
The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case with Ramna Police Station in July 2008, accusing the six of misappropriating over Tk 2.1 crore that came from a foreign bank as grants for orphans.
The HC bench yesterday granted her bail considering the quantum of punishment and the facts that she is 73 and suffering from various diseases, she faced trial proceedings at lower court while on bail in the case and the case records have reached the HC.
(Justnews/ys/1320)
