HC set to schedule Khaleda's bail plea in graft case

The hearing date of jailed BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's bail plea in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case is set to be announced shortly.

The High Court passed an order to that effect after the bail petition filed with the bench of Justice Obaidul Hassan and Justice SM Quddus Zaman was presented by the former prime minister's lawyers. 

The court on Apr 30 accepted Khaleda's appeal challenging the seven-year jail term imposed by the trial court.

It also issued a stay order on the confiscation of 43-katha land bought in the name of the trust and realisation of a fine imposed by the trial court.

The court ordered the lower court to send all the papers related to the verdict within two months before scheduling a hearing of the bail plea.

Accordingly, the case records were submitted within the stipulated deadline on Jun 20 and were presented in court by Khaleda's lawyer Zainul Abedin on Sunday. He was accompanied by her other lawyers Kaiser Kamal and AKM Ehsanur Rahman.

Zainul later told reporters, "We went to the court to present Khaleda Zia's bail petition last week. The court said, the hearing will commence once the case record is filed which was submitted in the meantime.

"As a result, we appeared before the court once again today with the bail plea."

On Oct 29 last year, Khaleda and three others were sentenced to seven years in prison each for embezzling Tk 31.54 million from the Zia Charitable Trust.