Stay Order on 4 Cases against Khaleda Upheld

On Sunday, the Appellate Division upheld the order of the High Court Division to stay trial proceedings against BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia in four more cases.   

The three-member bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Imman Ali, passed the order after dismissing a petition filed by the state, reports UNB.  

The State was represented by additional Attorney General Mamtaz Uddin Fakir while Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon stood for Khaleda.

The three arson cases were filed at Darussalam Police Station in 2014-2015, while the Metropolitan Magistrate Court filed a sedition case in 2016 for derogatory statements on freedom fighters.

On December 21, 2015, Khaleda Zia at a discussion at the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh questioned the actual number of martyrs. "There're controversies over how many were martyred in the Liberation War. There're many books and documents on the controversies," she said.

In the four cases, the High Court later stayed the trial proceedings. It also released a regulation demanding that the government clarify why it could not scrap the cases.

That prompted the state counsel to move the Division of Appellate.

On August 23 of this year, the Appellate Division upheld the order of the High Court Division to stay the trial proceedings in four other cases of arson and vandalism brought against the former prime minister at the police stations of Darussalam and Jatrabari in 2015.

Earlier on August 17, the apex court upheld the High Court's order to suspend trial proceedings in four other sabotage cases against the BNP chairman.

The cases were filed during a shutdown imposed by the BNP-led 20-party alliance during January and March 2015. In May 2017 the High Court stayed the four cases trial proceedings.

The court also released four rules asking the government to clarify why the cases need not be considered 'scrapped' by the court proceedings.

After her conviction in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on February 8, 2018, former Prime Minister Khaleda was sent to the Old Dhaka central jail.

In March this year, the BNP chief was released from jail for six months upon an executive order considering her age and on humanitarian ground following an application by her family.

On September 15, the government extended her conditional release by another six months.