The Dhaka Special Judge’s Court-3 on Thursday set July 23 for hearing in the double graft cases against Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia.
She attended the makeshift court in the capital’s Bakhshibazar around 10:35am as per schedule in the cases of Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust graft.
Judge Abu Ahmed Jamadar fixed the next schedule after hearing both the sides.
Khaleda’s counsels today cross-examined Anti-Corruption Commission deputy director Harun-or-Rashid who completed his testimony as the plaintiff in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case on May 25.
Khandker Mahbub Hossain, a counsel, said the case is filed out of political vendetta.
‘Had the judiciary system been independent in the country, the case would have been quashed in nip of the bud,’ he said.
Another defence counsel AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon said the media is rendering punishment terming the case as ‘graft case’.
He appealed to the court to warn the media not to label it as a corruption case.
‘Some government-backed politicians are doing politics with the cases…it is better to go to jail than doing this,’ Khokon said.
Earlier On May 25, judge Abu Ahmed Jamadar posted for today the hearing in the graft cases.
The security was beefed up at the makeshift court.
The court framed charges in the two cases on March 19, 2014 without following proper procedures as prescribed in the law, according to media reports.
In the Zia Orphanage Trust case, Khaleda, her eldest son Tarique Rahman, Ziaur Rahman’s nephew Mominur Rahman, Khaleda’s former principal secretary Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, former BNP lawmaker Qauzi Salimul Haque Kamal and businessman Sharfuddin Ahmed were charged with misappropriation of about Tk 2.11 crore after withdrawal of the money from the trust fund between November 13, 1993 and March 28, 2007.
In the other case, Khaleda, her former political secretary Harris Chowdhury, his assistant private secretary Ziaul Islam Munna, and former Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain’s assistant personal secretary Monirul Islam Khan were charged with collecting about Tk 3.15 crore illegally in the name of Zia Charitable Trust and subsequently withdrawing the money from the fund in an attempt to misappropriate it.
Source: New Age
