GATCO graft: ‘Foot rash’ keeps Khaleda away from court, hearing deferred

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has not appeared in the indictment hearing of a graft case because of a foot rash, despite there being a warrant.

The former prime minister’s absence on Wednesday led to the another deferment of hearings on the GATCO graft case.

Judge Abu Syed Diljar Hossain of the Special Judges Court-3 set the next hearing date for Jan 24.

The court earlier issued a warrant for Khaleda to make sure she is present during the hearing on Jan 16 following a petition filed by Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) lawyer Mosharraf Hossain Kazol.

Khaleda Zia has been in prison since last February, serving a 17-year sentence for graft in the Zia orphanage and trust cases.

“Khaleda Zia, the main accused in the case, is in jail. I could not produce her before the court today,” said ACC lawyer Mosharraf Hossain Kazol. “I heard she has a rash on her foot.”

On Wednesday, defence lawyers appealed for the deferment of the hearing.

The case accuses Khaleda of causing a loss to the state exchequer amounting to Tk 145.63 million by her decision to award a container-handling job at Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Dhaka and at the Chittagong Port to GATCO.

The ACC filed the GATCO graft case against Khaleda and 12 others during the regime of a military-installed caretaker government at Tejgaon Police Station on Sept 2, 2007. The following day, Khaleda and Coco were arrested from their Dhaka Cantonment home.

That same year, the case was brought under the Emergency Rule Act.

After investigation, ACC deputy director Md Zahirul Huda filed charges in court against 24 suspects, including nine former ministers and deputy ministers on May 13, 2008.   

The current number of accused stand at 20 following the death of former minister M Saifur Rahman, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, former minister and executed war criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami and Khaleda’s younger son Arafat Rahman Coco.