Dhaka, Nov 8 (Just News): Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia on Thursday told Dhaka Special Judge’s Court 9 that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina should also be in court as she was also accused of reported corruption in Niko deal.
She said the Niko deal was signed when Awami League was in power and the BNP government just maintained its continuity.
‘Sheikh Hasina was an accused in the same case; she got acquittal, but not me. If I’m produced before the court then prime minister Sheikh Hasina should also be produced before the court in the graft case,’ Khaleda Zia’s Sanaullah Miah quoted her as saying, reports United News of Bangladesh.
In response to Khaleda Zia’s statement, Judge Mahmudul Kabir said Sheikh Hasina has already been acquitted from the graft case by the High Court, so there is no question of producing her before the court in the case.
After a long hearing, Judge Mahmudul Kabir set November 14 for framing charge in the case.
After the court’s adjourned hearing, Khaleda Zia was taken to jail from the court.
She was brought to the makeshift courtroom set up at old Dhaka Central Jail on Nazimuddin Road from Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.
On her way to jail from the courtroom, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir had a brief conversation with her.
Earlier on Wednesday, the law ministry issued a gazette notification saying that the trial of BNP chief begum Khaleda Zia and others accused in the Niko corruption case would be held at a makeshift court in Old Dhaka Central Jail.
Asked about Khaleda Zia’s health condition, the BSMMU hospital additional director said, the medical board allowed her to move.
Ailing Khaleda Zia was taken to BSMMU on October 6 for treatment on order from the court.
Ailing Khaleda Zia was shifted to the hospital after she had languished inside the abandoned Old Dhaka Central Jail in the city's Nazimuddin Road for nine months since she was sentenced to five years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust case on February 8.
