KHALEDA’S BAIL HEARING HC keeps order pending

The High Court on Sunday concluded the hearing in jailed Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia’s petition for bail but kept its order pending until getting the records of the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case from the trial court.
Earlier on February 22, the same High Court bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Shahidul Karim accepted for hearing the appeal Khaleda filed on February 20 against her sentence of five years and stayed the realisation of her fine, but posted for Sunday the bail hearing.
The former prime minister filed the appeal on February 20 after getting the certified copy of the verdict the verdict, the Dhaka Special Judge’s Court-5 pronounced on February 8 jailing her for five years and her eldest son Tarique Rahman and four others for 10 years in the orphanage trust case, on February 19.
The bench had also asked the trial court to send the original records of the case to the High Court in 15 days after receiving the order.
A court official said that the trial court on February 22 received the High Court order.
On Sunday, the bench heard the bail petition for one hour and left the packed courtroom at about 3:30pm, saying, ‘Hearing on bail concluded, the order will be passed after arrival of the lower court record.’
Khaleda’s lawyer Moudud Ahmed told reporters that normally they had not heard of such kind of High Court orders the past calling the lower court records for the disposal of bail petition.
Moudud said that the attorney general suggested the court to examine the trial court records before disposing of the petition.
Khaleda’s another lawyer Zainul Abedin, also the Supreme Court Bar Association president, said at a briefing that senior lawyers decided to move forward as per the court order.
Moving the petition, senior counsel AJ Mohammad Ali, also former attorney general, argued that Khaleda should be granted bail considering her age and social status and as she was suffering from various heath complications because of old age.
He said that Khaleda was entitled to bail since she was jailed for five years.
He argued that it was a longstanding tradition of the courts of Bangladesh and the sub-continent to grant bail to women, convicted or accused.
Attorney general Mahbubey Alam argued for 30 minutes opposing bail.
‘If she [Khaleda] is granted bail at this moment, her appeal would never be heard,’ he argued seeking disposal of the appeal in a month.
He said that former president HM Ershad had suffered in jail for more than three years and a half to serve out his five-year sentence in the Janata Tower corruption case.
The court smiled at the argument of Mahbubey Alam and said, ‘Is it a ground of opposing bail that someone being the head of state had languished in jail for long period so she being former head of state should also languish in jail for such tenure?’
In his 25-minute argument, Anti-Corruption Commission lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said that the court should call for Khaleda’s medical certificates in support of her illness.
He also argued that short-term sentence could not be a ground for bail.
He, however, said that granting bail was a discretionary power of the court.
The court pointed out that Khaleda was not jailed under Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1947 for abusing power.
The court left the courtroom for 10 minutes before starting the hearing at 2:30pm, asking the attorney general and Zainul Abedin to calm the lawyers crowding the courtroom and said that the court would not resume if the situation was not calmed.
Huge cops, both in uniform and plain clothes, were deployed around the courtroom and on the court premises as pro-BNP leaders and activists gathered to know the fate of the bail petition.
Pro-BNP lawyers brought out a procession on the court premises and chanted slogans against prime minister Sheikh Hasina for jailing Khaleda. 
Earlier in the morning, Judge Md Akhteruzzaman of the special judge court-5 extended till Monday the tenure of Khaleda’s bail in Zia Charitable Trust graft case.
The court said that the hearing in the case would resume today.
Khaleda’s lawyers Moudud Ahmed, former attorneys general Rafique-Ul Huq, AF Hassan Ariff and AJ Mohammad Ali, Abdur Razzaque Khan, Jamiruddin Sircar, Khandker Mahbub Hossain, Zainul Abedin, Mahbub Uddin Khokon, Sanaullah Mia, Aminul Islam, Nawshad Jamir and Kayser Kamal, among others, were present in the High Court hearing.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net