Govt railroading Khaleda's graft trial

BNP yesterday accused the government of railroading the Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust graft trial against BNP chief Khaleda Zia with an ulterior motive and feared that she would not get justice.
The party threatened to take to the street alongside the battle in court if the "false and politically motivated" cases are not withdrawn immediately.
“The two cases were filed to humiliate our leader and keep her away from politics,” Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, BNP's acting secretary general, told a press briefing at the party's Nayapaltan central office in the capital.
The trial court in Dhaka has already started recording the complainant's deposition in the two cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission, in 2009 and 2011, against nine people including Khaleda.
Meanwhile, pointing at ACC Chairman Mohammad Badiuzzaman's comment in Rangpur on Monday, "If the BNP chairperson is proved guilty, she will get punishment”, Fakhrul said it was a "political" statement, unbecoming of a person holding the constitutional post.
Recently, Judge Bashudev Roy who was hearing the cases was transferred after Khaleda petitioned the High Court, expressing "no confidence" in him. Law Ministry's Joint Secretary Abu Ahmed Jamadar replaced Basudev, and the government called it a "routine" transfer.
Fakhrul said the replacement at the time when a petition was still to be disposed of by the HC revealed the government's "evil and political intention".
Khaleda will testify in the graft cases before a makeshift court at Bakshibazar today, her counsel said, when party activists are expected to gather nearby to exhibit their might.