Khaleda's Bail: SC hearing tomorrow on pleas against HC orders

The Supreme Court is set to hear tomorrow four separate petitions filed in connection with a High Court order that granted bail to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

Two of the petitions were filed challenging the HC order that granted the bail and the two others for vacating the SC order that stayed the bail.

According to the SC website, all four petitions have been included as items No 9 and 10 on Sunday's cause list of the four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain.

The government and the Anti-Corruption Commission on Thursday filed two separate leave-to-appeal petitions with the SC challenging the HC order that granted bail to Khaleda.

The Office of the Attorney General and the ACC both submitted the petitions that also sought extension of the SC order that stayed the bail order until Sunday.

Earlier on Wednesday, Khaleda filed two separate petitions with the SC for vacating its order that stayed her bail hours after the SC stayed the HC order.

The BNP chief has been sentenced to five years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.

Upon receiving the petitions, SC Chamber Judge Hasan Foez Siddique forwarded those to the apex court's full bench for hearing.

In the petition, Khaleda said her lawyers did not get any scope to place their arguments at the SC before it stayed the bail order, Sagir Hossain Leon, her counsel, told this newspaper.

Citing from the petitions, he said Khaleda was given a sentence of five-year imprisonment and she has been in jail since February 8. Courts have a long tradition of granting bail to a convict or an accused if the person is a woman, he said, adding, Khaleda is now 73 and has been suffering from various chronic degenerative medical conditions.