SC rejects Khaleda's petitions

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a High Court verdict that rejected two writ petitions filed by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, challenging the legality of the appointment of a trial court judge, who indicted her in two corruption cases.

The court dismissed two appeals lodged by the BNP chief against the June 19 HC judgment that found no illegality in the appointment of Judge Bashudev Roy of the Special Judge Court-3 of Dhaka.

On March 19, the court of Bashudev framed charges against the former prime minister, Khaleda, and eight others in the Zia Charitable Trust and the Zia Orphanage Trust graft cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Following yesterday's apex court orders, there is no legal bar for the court of Bashudev to proceed with the trial proceedings of the cases against Khaleda and others, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told reporters.

ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan told The Daily Star that the SC yesterday affirmed the June 19 HC verdict which did not find any illegality in the appointment of the lower court judge.

The lower court can start recording statements from prosecution witnesses in the cases against the accused on September 17, he added.  

However, Zainul Abedin, lawyer of Khaleda, said the trial court cannot continue the cases as two more leave-to-appeal petitions filed by Khaleda in connection with the two graft cases are pending with the SC.

The leave-to-appeal petitions were filed, challenging another HC verdict that rejected two other writ petitions lodged by Khaleda against the charge framing orders against her and eight others in the same cases.

Zainul also said they will pray to the lower court on September 17 to adjourn the proceedings of the cases.

“We may file a review petition with the SC against today's [yesterday] order after consulting with the party chief [Khaleda],” he added.

Yesterday, a five-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain dismissed the two leave-to-appeal petitions of Khaleda.

ZIA ORPHANAGE GRAFT CASE

The ACC in July 2009 filed the Zia Orphanage graft case against Khaleda, Tarique Rahman and four others for embezzling over Tk 2.1 crore through the “fake” trust.

The four other accused are former BNP lawmaker Kazi Salimul Haque, businessman Sharfuddin Ahmed, former principal secretary Kamal Uddin Siddiqui and Momenur Rahman -- a nephew of BNP founder Ziaur Rahman.

ZIA CHARITABLE TRUST GRAFT CASE

On August 8, 2011, the anti-graft body lodged the Zia Charitable graft case against Khaleda and three others for abusing power in setting up the charity.

The other accused are Harris Chowdhury, Khaleda's former political secretary, Ziaul Islam Munna, assistant private secretary (APS) of Harris, and Monirul Islam Khan, APS of former Dhaka City Corporation mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka.

Harris, Momenur and Kamal Uddin remain absconding.