Dhaka (March 12, 2018): A court in Bangladesh extended the bail of imprisoned former prime minister and main opposition BNP chief Khaleda Zia until March 13 in a graft case.
The three-time ex-prime minister was jailed for five years on February 8 in connection with the embezzlement of 21 million taka (about $250,000) in foreign donations meant for the Zia Orphanage Trust, named after her late husband Ziaur Rahman, a military ruler-turned-politician.
The bdnews24 reported that the Dhaka Special Judge’s Court-5 set March 13 as the date for the next hearing of arguments in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case and extended the bail of Zia, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief, until then.
Yesterday, the High Court deferred the judgement on her bail petition, saying it would decide after receiving necessary papers from the lower court which sentenced her to five years in jail this month.
The Zia Charitable Trust graft case, filed in August 2011, accuses four persons including Zia of abusing power to raise funds for the trust from unknown sources.
The three others are: Harris Chowdhury, political secretary of then prime minister Zia between 2001 and 2006; Ziaul Islam Munna, Assistant Private Secretary (APS) to Harris; and Monirul Islam Khan, APS of former Dhaka city mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka.
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