By News On Air Mar 03, 2025
In Bangladesh, the Supreme Court on Monday upheld the High Court order that acquitted Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson Khaleda Zia scrapping her seven-year jail term in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case.
A three-member tribunal led by Senior Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam passed the order.
Earlier on February 23, the prosecution and the Anti-Corruption Commission submitted separate petitions challenging the acquittal of Khaleda Zia in the case.
On November 27, the High Court acquitted BNP Chairperson and former prime minister of Bangladesh Khaleda Zia and two others in the Zia Charitable Trust case. The HC also scrapped the lower verdict that sentenced Khaleda and two others in the same case, reports United News of Bangladesh (UNB).
On October 29, 2018, a Special Court in Dhaka sentenced BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and three others to seven years of rigorous imprisonment each in the much-talked-about Zia Charitable Trust corruption case. The court also fined them Tk 10 lakh each, in default, to suffer six months more in jail.
Earlier on January 17 this year, the Supreme Court acquitted Khaleda Zia, Tarique Rahman and others in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case. The court in its observation had said the case was filed out of vengeance against the accused.
Khaleda, 79, currently in London, has been suffering from multiple health complications, including arthritis, diabetes, liver cirrhosis, and kidney ailments and has gone there for specialised medical care unavailable in Bangladesh, according to her doctors.