DHAKA: BNP Chairperson and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia will file appeal challenging the five years imprisonment awarded by a special court of Dhaka on Thursday (February 08).

The lawyers of the BNP chief have already filed a petition seeking certified copy of the verdict. They filed the petition just after the court delivered the verdict in the much-talked-about case.

BNP joint secretary general and Khaleda Zia’s lawyer Barrister AH Mahbub Uddin Khokon said that the BNP chief asked them to file appeal challenging the verdict. “We have already sought certified copy of the verdict. We will file the appeal just after getting the certified copy,” he said.

The lawyer said these while talking to journalists outside the special court, the makeshift court set up on the premises of Madrasa-e-Alia Dhaka in city’s Bakshibazar area.

He said that the case is baseless. Khaleda Zia will get justice in the higher court, he hoped.

Khaleda Zia’s another lawyer and president of Supreme Court Bar Association Advocate Joynul Abedin echoed the same as Mahbub Uddin Khokon. He said that Khaleda Zia will be acquitted as she will get justice in the higher court.
 
Earlier, the Special Court-5 of Dhaka awarded five years imprisonment to Khaleda Zia in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case. Her elder son and BNP vice chairman Tarique Rahman and four others were given 10 years imprisonment in the case. The court, however, fined Tk. 2.10 crore each.

Judge of special court Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman delivered the verdict. He read out the summary of the 632-page verdict at after 2:00 pm following Khaleda Zia reached the court at around 1:45pm.

Later, Khaleda Zia was landed in the old Central Jail in city’s Nazimuddin Road just after the verdict.

BDST: 1600 HRS, FEB 08, 2018
EHJ