No Bar to Run Trial against Khaleda in Niko Graft Case

The High Court allowed the lower court's plea to continue Khaleda Zia's trial in the Niko corruption case today.

The HC rejected Khaleda Zia's appeal of a March 19 lower court decision outlining charges against her and seven other defendants in the corruption case.

The decision was made by the HC bench of Justices Mustafa Zaman Islam and Md. Aminul Islam following the hearing of the arguments.

The BNP chairperson appealed the trial court's decision to the HC on May 17 on the grounds that the charges had been brought up in error.

When Khaleda was prime minister from 2001 and 2006, the ACC filed the lawsuit on December 9, 2007, alleging her and a number of other individuals of misusing their positions of authority to provide a contract for gas exploration and extraction to the Canadian firm Niko.

During the hearing, senior attorneys Zainul Abedin, AJ Mohammad Ali, and Kayser Kamal defended Khaleda, while additional attorney general Mohammad Mehedi Hassan Chowdhury and senior attorney Khurshid Alam Khan spoke on behalf of the state and the ACC, respectively.