SC stays Khaleda's 10-year jail sentence

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has stayed the High Court verdict that doubled the 5-year prison sentence of BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia to 10 years in Zia Orphanage Trust case.
At the same time, the apex court also allowed Khaleda Zia to move an appeal before the court challenging the HC verdict.
A three-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam, passed the order after holding a hearing on two separate leave to appeal petitions filed by Khaleda Zia against the HC judgement.
It also asked the lawyers representing Khaleda Zia to submit in two weeks the concise statement containing the points on which they will place arguments on the appeals before this court.
Khaleda Zia, also the former prime minister, filed the petitions on March 14, 2019 challenging the HC verdict.
One petition was filed challenging the HC decision upholding the 5-year prison sentence and another was filed challenging the decision of increasing the sentence to 10 years.
Lawyers Zainul Abedin, AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon, Kayser Kamal and Zakir Hossain appeared on behalf of the BNP chairperson, while Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman represented the state and lawyer Md Asif Hasan appeared for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
A special court in Dhaka sentenced Khaleda Zia to five years in prison on February 8, 2018 for her involvement in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft incident.
Later, in response to an appeal by the Anti-Corruption Commission, the High Court, on October 30 of the same year, increased her sentence to 10 years in jail. Later, the two leave to appeal petitions were filed.
The Zia Orphanage graft case was filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission in July 2008, accusing Khaleda Zia and others of misappropriating over Tk 21 million that was received as grant for orphans via a foreign bank.
In August 2011, the ACC also filed the Zia Charitable Trust graft case at Tejgaon Police Station, accusing four people, including Khaleda Zia, of raising funds for the trust from unknown sources and abusing power.
The 79-year-old former premier has long been suffering from various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, kidney, lung, heart, eye problems, and post-Covid complications.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the then government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail through an executive order by suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, on condition that she would stay at her Gulshan house and not leave the country.
Since then, her release term had been extended every six month following the family's plea. She was released on August 6 this year by an executive order from her internment after Sheikh Hasina's fall on August 5 amid the student-led popular uprising.

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