The hearing of the state and ACC appeal against the High Court's verdict acquitting BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia from a seven-year sentence in the Zia Charitable Trust case has been fixed for March 2.
On Sunday (February 23), a three-judge appeal bench headed by Senior Justice of the Appellate Division Md. Ashfaqul Islam fixed the date for hearing the appeal.
Earlier on February 16, the state appealed to the Appellate Division against the High Court's verdict acquitting BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in the Zia Charitable Trust case.
The High Court bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain gave the verdict on November 27 last year.
In addition to Khaleda Zia, Haris Chowdhury's then private secretary Ziaul Islam and former mayor Sadeq Hossain Khoka's private secretary Monirul Islam Khan were also acquitted in the case.
Senior lawyer Zainul Abedin and lawyer Barrister Kaiser Kamal represented Khaleda Zia in the High Court.
Lawyer Asif Hasan represented the ACC.
On the day of the High Court's verdict, lawyers Zainul Abedin and Kaiser Kamal said that the BNP Chairperson's sentence in this case has been commuted. Why is there an appeal hearing? We said that she (Khaleda Zia) respects the law. The President has commuted it. There is a provision for pardon. Khaleda Zia does not believe in pardon. She did not commit the crime. She did not even ask for forgiveness. Therefore, she has instructed the lawyers to deal with it legally.
After the full copy of the High Court verdict in this case was published, the state filed a leave to appeal (application for permission to appeal) in the Appellate Division.
On October 29, 2018, Judge Md. Akhtaruzzaman (now a judge of the High Court Division) of Dhaka Special Judge's Court-5, established in Room 7 of the Administrative Building of the Old Dhaka Central Jail and sentenced Khaleda Zia to seven years in prison in the Zia Charitable Trust case. At the same time, she was fined Tk. 10 lakh, and in default of payment, she was sentenced to another six months in prison. The same sentence was given to the other three accused in the case.
The other three accused convicted are - former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's then political secretary Haris Chowdhury (late), Haris Chowdhury's then private secretary Ziaul Islam Munna, and Monirul Islam Khan, private secretary to the late Sadeq Hossain Khoka, former mayor of the undivided Dhaka City Corporation.
On August 8, 2010, a case was filed against the Zia Charitable Trust at Tejgaon Police Station. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case on charges of illegal transactions of Tk. 3 crore 15 lahk 43 thousand in the name of the trust. After the investigation, the ACC filed a charge sheet against Khaleda Zia and four others in the court in 2012. On March 19, 2014, the court framed charges against Khaleda and four other accused. After the testimony was completed, the ACC presented its arguments in the case and the verdict was announced on October 19, 2018.