High Court scraps 11 cases against Khaleda Zia

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia

A High Court bench comprising Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain passed the order on Thursday after the final hearing on 11 separate petitions filed by Khaleda.

Advocate Zainul Abedin, Barrister MA Mahbub Uddin Khokon, Barrister Nasir Uddin Asim, Barrister Kaisar Kamal, Barrister Ragib Rauf Chowdhury and five others stood for Kahleda.

Among the cases, one was filed on charge of sedition, seven were filed at Darus Salam police station and three at Jatrabari police station on charge of sabotage during the anti-government movement in 2015, reports UNB.

The trial proceedings of the cases remained suspended for long following a High Court order.

The sedition case was filed against Khaleda for her remarks about the number of martyrs in the Liberation War.

The BNP chief had been on bail in all these cases.

Advocate Zainul Abedin told reporters that there was no evidence that Khaleda Zia was present on the spot or gave any order in any of the cases filed on charges of sabotage. Police submitted charge sheets in the cases unnecessarily, he said.

Khaleda was sent to Old Dhaka Central Jail on February 8, 2018, after a special court sentenced her to five years in prison in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.

On October 30, 2018, the High Court raised her punishment to 10 years. Later, she was convicted in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail after 776 days through an executive order suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, with conditions that she would stay in her Gulshan house and not leave the country.

On August 6, Khaleda Zia was completely freed by an order of President Mohammed Shahabuddin.