Courts unable to render fair verdicts, says Khaleda

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia says the courts cannot hold fair trials because they are ‘constrained by the government’.

The BNP chief made the remark during a BNP Executive Committee meeting called following the announcement of the date for the verdict in the Zia Orphanage Trust case.

The event, chaired by Khaleda Zia, began at Dhaka’s Le Meridien hotel at 11am on Saturday. Approximately 450 members of the BNP Executive Committee and members of the Advisory Council were in attendance.

The ‘constraints’ the government has put on lower courts are also enforced on the Supreme Court, the BNP chief alleged in her inaugural speech.

“No matter what they believe, regardless of whether it is wrong, the courts do not have the ability to render a fair verdict that goes against the government.”

Khaleda faces life in prison if she is convicted in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case on Feb 8. Her eldest son, Tarique Rahman, is also accused in the case.

Khaleda also discussed the seven-year prison sentence given to Tarique Rahman by the High Court in a money laundering case after he was acquitted by a trial court.

“You see what happens even when a judge gives a fair verdict … they have to leave the country.”

The government also ‘forced’ the resignation of former Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha after he ‘told the truth’, the BNP chief said.