HC verdict on Ershad's appeal today

The High Court will deliver a verdict today on a 25-year-old appeal of former president HM Ershad against a lower court judgement that jailed him for three years in a corruption case.

The HC yesterday fixed 3:30pm today for giving the verdict.

Anti-Corruption Commission's lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star that now defunct Bureau of Anti-Corruption had filed the case against Ershad in 1992 on the charge of misappropriating Tk 1.91 crore by misusing powers at different times when he was the president from December 11, 1983 to December 6, 1990.

On February 3, 1992, a Dhaka court sentenced Ershad, also chairman of the Jatiya Party, to three years' imprisonment and ordered the authorities concerned to confiscate the money and his Toyota Land Cruiser vehicle for committing corruption.

Ershad the same year had filed an appeal with the HC, challenging the lower court judgment. Following the appeal, the HC stayed the lower court verdict, Khurshid said, adding that the ACC on February 26 in 2012 became a party of the case under the HC's permission, as the Bureau was not functional.

The lawyer said Ershad had obtained bail from the HC in the case, as he served three years' in jail in the case.