Judiciary has totally collapsed in Bangladesh: Fakhrul

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday alleged that the date for delivering verdict in Zia Charitable Trust graft case against the party’s chairperson Khaleda Zia and others was fixed “illegally at the behest of the government”.

“The date of the verdict was announced absolutely on the government’s instructions. They’ve been trying from the very beginning to convict our leader [Khaleda] without any trial and justice,” he said, reports UNB.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader also alleged that the government is trying to deprive Khaleda of justice through the court.

“It’s exposed that the judiciary has totally collapsed in Bangladesh as the government has established its control over it.”

Fakhrul said this while talking to newsmen after the maiden meeting of the Jatiya Oikya Front (National Unity Front) at JSD president ASM Abdur Rob’s Uttara residence in the capital.

He said holding the trial in Zia Charitable Trust case in absence of Khaleda Zia is illegal. “Announcing the verdict date in her (Khaleda’s) absence is also totally illegal.”

The trial process in the cases was not completed as the accused could not give self-defence statements and lawyers could not end their arguments. “We think it’s contrary to justice. We protest it.”

Earlier in the day, judge Md Akhtaruzzaman of the Special Court-5 in Dhaka fixed 29 October for pronouncing verdict in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case.

On 8 February, Khaleda was convicted in Zia Orphanage Trust graft case by the same court. Since then, the BNP chairperson has been kept at the abandoned central jail in Old Dhaka’s Nazimuddin Road area.