ACC moves to revive GATCO graft case against Khaleda
Thursday, 29 January 2015
The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) has moved to revive proceedings of the GATCO corruption case against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, which the High Court (HC) had stopped, reports bdnews24.com.
It filed a plea on Tuesday for hearing on a HC rule regarding the legality of including the case under the Emergency Rule Act. On Wednesday, another HC bench instructed the matter to be included on the February 04 cause list.
ACC lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said hearing on the HC order that froze the case's proceedings following another plea by the former prime minister might be included on Thursday's cause list.
Following an ACC plea, the matter of the HC rule was forwarded to the bench of justices Md Moinul Islam Chowdhury and JBM Hassan for hearing. But the court instructed that it be set aside for Feb 4 as Khaleda's lawyer Mahbubuddin Khokan pleaded for time.
The move to revive the case's proceedings, after seven years, comes at a time when Khaleda has been named in several cases of violence during the BNP's ongoing blockade as the 'instigator'.
In 2008, a HC bench issued a rule and stayed the trial's proceedings after hearing a petition of the BNP chief.
The ACC filed the GATCO corruption case on Sept 2, 2007, during the military-installed caretaker regime against Khaleda, her youngest son Arafat Rahman Coco and 11 others.