The Supreme Court today stayed until May 8 the High Court order that granted bail to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case in which she was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
The four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed the order after granting two separate leave-to-appeal petitions filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission and the government challenging the High Court’s bail order.
ACC’s lawyer Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star that the Supreme Court will hold hearing on the appeals against the High Court bail order on May 8.
Following today’s Supreme Court order, Khaleda cannot get released from jail till May 8, he said.
It means the ACC and the government got permission from the Supreme Court to move separate appeals before the court against the High Court order.
The apex court asked the ACC and government to submit concise statements on the appeal in two weeks after receiving the leave granting order.
Khaleda Zia has also been asked to submit concise statement on the appeal in two weeks after the ACC and government file their concise statements.
A concise statement contains the points on which the lawyer placed arguments on the appeals before the court.
After passing the order, Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain said all the four judges of the Apex Court passed the order unanimously after examining the records of the case.
Barrister Kayser Kamal, a lawyer for Khaleda, The Daily Star that it is unprecedented that the Supreme Court did not assign any reason for granting leave-to-appeal petition filed by the ACC and government against the High Court order of bail to his client.
Khaleda landed in prison on February 8 after she was handed the five-year jail sentence by a Dhaka court for misappropriating a donation fund of the Zia Orphanage Trust.
The HC on March 12 granted her four months' bail on four grounds: a short sentence of five years, health condition, her facing trial, and that the case records have reached the court.
SC bins plea for rescheduling Khaleda’s bail hearing
The Supreme Court today dismissed a plea seeking rescheduling the hearing date on the plea against Khaleda's bail.
Khaleda’s lawyer Barrister Jamir Uddin Sarker moved the petition citing that the apex court will go to vacation from April 13 and remain closed until May 6.
“She (Khaleda) has been suffering in jail and she is physically sick,” he told The Daily Star. “The hearing needs to be held before the apex court goes into vacation.”
Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain said that the court has fixed May 8 for hearing the appeal and it will hear it on that day without any failure and adjournment.
The court will conclude the hearing of the appeal by May 9, the chief justice added.
