Dhaka, May 8 (Just News): The Supreme Court (SC) is scheduled to hold hearing on the leave-to-appeal petitions challenging BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia’s bail that the High Court granted her in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case on Tuesday.
The full bench of the appellate division, led by chief justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, is going to hear on the appeal as it has been included as item number 9 in Tuesday’s cause list of the apex court.
Khaleda Zia’s lawyers, meanwhile, voiced high hope that the apex court will grant bail to Khaleda considering her health condition, age and social status.
“We’re completing all the necessary preparations to place our arguments before the highest court in favour of granting her bail in the case,” Khaleda Zia’s lawyer Mahbubuddin Khokon said.
He said they will focus on the bail precedence alongside her falling health condition in jail during their arguments.
Khokon said they are confident that the Appellate Division will uphold the High Court’s bail to Khaleda on Tuesday.
On 19 March, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court stayed Khaleda Zia’s bail till 8 May in the graft case in which she was convicted by the lower court and sent to jail.
The SC also allowed the State and Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to file petitions against the HC order that granted bail to Khaleda Zia.
On 8 February, the Dhaka Special Court-5 convicted the former prime minister and BNP chairperson and sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case. She was then sent to old central jail at Nazimuddin Road in the city.
She secured four months’ bail from the High Court in the case on 12 March.
On 15 March, the ACC and the State filed two leave-to-appeal petitions before the Appellate Division challenging her bail.
(Justnews/ys/1200hr)
