Khaleda’s Release: Admit guilt, we’ll consider your parole
Mentioning that BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has not yet appealed for parole, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan yesterday said the government would consider it if she admitted guilt and apologised.
"The government will consider the BNP chief's release if she appeals for parole after admitting her guilt and offering apology for it," he said while talking to reporters after attending a religious programme in Tarail upazila in the afternoon, reports UNB.
Law Minister Anisul Huq also made similar comments while talking to reporters during an event at Hotel Sonargaon in the capital yesterday.
Meanwhile, the BNP has said Khaleda should be released on humanitarian grounds as her physical condition is deteriorating fast. BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday spoke to Awami League General Secretary Obaidul Quader over phone about her release.
On February 10, Khaleda's younger brother Shameem Iskander wrote to the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) authorities, requesting them to recommend that she needed to be sent abroad for better treatment.
According to BNP sources, Khaleda declined to seek any parole as she believed that she had not committed any crime and deserved bail.
On the other hand, several ministers said the government would not compromise on Khaleda's release until she seeks parole.
Many BNP leaders believe that it is not possible to get her released through legal means as the government is "influencing" the judicial process.
On December 12 last year, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court rejected the BNP chief's bail petition in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case.
Khaleda's lawyer Zainul Abedin yesterday told journalists that they would file a bail petition again this week.
Pointing to section 401(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the lawyer said the government could suspend jail term of such convicts under special consideration.
The section says, "When any person has been sentenced to punishment for an offence, the government may at any time without conditions or upon any condition which the person sentenced accepts, suspend the execution of his sentence or remit the whole or any part of the punishment to which he has been sentenced."
Khaleda has been receiving treatment at the BSMMU since April 1 last year.
She landed in jail on February 8, 2018 after being convicted in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case. She was convicted in another case later that year.
The BNP claims that both the cases are politically motivated.
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