Khaleda must return to jail if she wants to go abroad: minister

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will have to return to jail first to apply for overseas travel, the law minister has said.

The law stipulates she cannot apply for overseas travel while on suspended sentence, according to Anisul Huq.

The government freed the former prime minister in 2020 on suspended sentence amid the coronavirus pandemic. She was jailed on corruption charges three years ago.

Her family and the party want to take the 74-year-old BNP chief abroad for treatment, but the government rejected the family’s plea two months ago.

Discussing section 401 of the Code of Criminal Procedure at a workshop on Saturday, the law minister referred to Khaleda’s case. The section is on the government’s power to suspend or remit sentence. 

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A subsection states the government may any time suspend or reduce the punishment of convicts with or without conditions.

But none of the six subsections say that the government can reconsider a petition after disposing of it, the law minister said.

The home ministry uses the power given by the section with permission from the prime minister after taking the law ministry’s opinion, he said.   

“We gave our opinion in Khaleda Zia’s case as well. We freed her by suspending the sentence on some conditions when her relatives filed a petition. It means the petition has been disposed of.”

“Now they want permission to go abroad. But the fact is, we don’t have the power to reconsider a petition after disposing of it.

“So, what’ll they have to do? They’ll have to file a petition again. For this, the previous petition will have to be scrapped and she will have to return to jail.”

Justice Obaidul Hassan of the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division and Justice M Enayetur Rahim of the High Court Division also spoke at the workshop organised by the Law Reporters Forum and Management and Resources Development Initiative.