Khaleda challenges court acceptance of charge

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Monday filed a petition with the High Court for scrapping a lower court order that had accepted the charges against her in Zia charitable trust corruption case.

Barrister Mahabub Uddin Khokon, who submitted the petition on behalf of Khaleda, also prayed to the court to stay the proceedings of the case.

Barrister Khokon told The Daily Star that the High Court will hear the petition after the court reopens on September 15 following its ongoing vacation.

In her petition, Khaleda said as there was no corruption in establishing Zia charitable trust, the lower court order which took the charges into cognisance should be quashed.

Khaleda is now on bail in this case.

A Dhaka court on January 15 this year took the charges of the case against Khaleda Zia into cognizance for its trial.

Anti-Corruption Commission on August 8, 2011 filed the case with Tejgaon police accusing Khaleda and three other accused of abusing power to raise funds in the name of the trust.

Among the accused, Khaleda’s former political secretary Harris Chowdhury is absconding while the remaining -- Harris' assistant private secretary (APS) Ziaul Islam Munna and former Dhaka City Corporation mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka’s APS Monirul Islam Khan -- are now on bail.

Another lower court on Sunday asked BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, for the sixth time, to appear before it in the Zia charitable trust graft case. She has to appear on September 16.