Appellate Division upholds Khaleda’s bail

The Appellate Division on Wednesday upheld the bail granted to former prime minister and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia by the High Court Division.
But the authorities would not set her free on bail as they had already shown her arrested in two other cases in Comilla.
Besides the authorities sent four warrants to different police stations in the capital and elsewhere in the country to show her arrested in these cases. 
In the verdict, a four-judge bench chaired by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain gave the directive to dispose of Khaleda Zia’s appeal against her jail term by a HC bench chaired by Justice M Enayetur Rahim by July 31.
The Appellate Division, however, rejected her lawyers’ verbal prayer to issue a short order for Khaleda Zia’s early release from the jail.  
The Appellate Division dismissed separate appeals filed by the government and the Anti-Corruption Commission to cancel Khaleda Zia’s bail.
On March 12, the High Court Division granted four months’ bail to Khaleda Zia on health ground pending disposal of her appeal to set aside trial court’s verdict that had jailed her for five years. 
On March 14, the Appellate Division stayed the bail order until the appeals of the government and the ACC opposing her bail were disposed of.  
Khaleda’s lawyer Moudud Ahmed told reporters that she would not be able to leave the jail right now unless she was granted bail in six other politically motivated false cases in which she had been shown arrested.
Three of the cases were filed by police in Comilla, one for arson attacks and two cases were filed by a ruling Awami League leader with Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court.
In one case, the AL leader alleged that she had doctored her date of birth.
In the other case, the AL leader alleged that she showed disrespect to the national flag by appointing Jamaat leaders as ministers.
The same AL leader filed another case at a Narail court on the allegation that she had distorted the history of Liberation War.
Dhaka Central jail’s senior superintendent Md Jahangir Kabir told New Age that Khaleda would be freed from jail after she obtains bails in the two cases she faces i1n Comilla for arson attack and the withdrawal of four separate warrants issued by four Dhaka Metropolitan courts to produce her before them. 
Khaleda Zia’s lawyer Masud Ahmed Talukder told New Age that today Dhaka metropolitan magistrate Khurshid Alam’s court was scheduled to hold a hearing on Khaleda Zia’s bail application in case of doctoring date of birth.
He said that today Dhaka metropolitan magistrate Ahsan Habib’s court was also scheduled to hold the bail hearing in the national flag case.    
He said that both the courts directed the jail authorities to produce Khaleda Zia at a makeshift court at Bakshibazar in the capital for the hearings scheduled to begin at 11AM today.
A Comilla court set June 7 to hold further hearings on her bail applications in two arson attack cases in which she has been shown arrested, her lawyer Kaysar Kamal told reporters.   
Moudud said that soon bail applications would be filed in the lower courts.
He said that there should be no difficulty for Khaleda Zia to get bails in the other cases after the Appellate Division upheld her bail in the Zia Orphanage Trust Case.
He said that the government would try to delay her release using various tricks as she was already shown arrested in other cases. 
On February 8, the Dhaka Special Court-5 sentenced her to five-year term in the Zia Orphanage Trust case and sent her to old central jail at Nazimuddin Road in the capital.
Khaleda faces 34 cases, 30 of them were filed by prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s government. 

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net