Khaleda expresses no-confidence
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has expressed no-confidence in another judge who has held two hearings in two corruption cases against her.
The judge, Abu Ahmed Jamadar, of the Special Judge Court-3 of Dhaka, is holding the trial of the Zia Orphanage and Zia Charitable Trust graft cases filed against Khaleda and eight others.
Jamadar, appointed as a new judge at the court on December 18 last year, held the two hearings on December 24 and January 7.
Khaleda's lawyer AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon submitted four separate petitions -- two for seeking adjournment of the hearing and two for her non-appearance before it -- to the court yesterday.
After the hearing, Jamadar rejected the adjournment petitions and fixed January 29 for the next hearing in the cases.
The court, however, granted Khaleda's non-appearance on grounds of “her being confined to her office”. On January 7, it also excused her from appearing before it for the same reason, but quashed the pleas for adjournment of recording statements.
The BNP chief did not appear before the court on different dates “for security reasons”.
Lawyer Khokon also filed two more petitions with the court for reconsidering their appeals, but the court again quashed the adjournment petitions.
The court recorded statements of complainant Harunur Rashid, a deputy director of the Anti-Corruption Commission, for half an hour.
Khokon then expressed no-confidence in the judge, saying they would not get justice from the court, and they would go to the High Court with a no-confidence plea against Judge Jamadar as he turned down their adjournment petitions.
Public Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol, who stood for the state, told The Daily Star that the defence lodged repeated no-confidence petitions for “delaying the trial proceedings.”
Khaleda had filed two no-confidence petitions with the High Court in October last year, seeking orders on the government to transfer the cases from the Special Judge Court-3 of Dhaka that had Judge Bashudev Roy as its head.
On December 18, the government transferred Bashudev, who had been holding trial of the cases since the charges were framed against Khaleda on March 19 last year, to the position of a special judge in Patuakhali.
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