Graft cases: Khaleda’s lawyers seek time

New Age Online

Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia’s lawyers filed a time petition with a special court in the capital’s Bakhshibazar on Wednesday in the Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust graft cases lodged against her.The lawyers argued that accused, former prime minister Khaleda Zia, could not attend the court since has been confined to Gulshan BNP office.‘Had she been free, she would have appeared before the court, as scheduled,’ said one of her lawyers, Aminul Islam, this morning.‘She wants to go first to the party central office at Naya Paltan, brief the media there…and then appear before the court,’ he said on Tuesday.Anti Corruption Commission prosecutor Khurshed Alam Khan told New Age on Tuesday that it won’t be a problem if she fails to appear in the court as she has been in ‘confinement’.

The law, however, allowed the court to continue the trial in her absence since she was ‘confined’ and suffering from cold-related problem, said Khurshed.Gulshan crime division’s deputy commissioner Khandker Lutful Kabir told New Age that they could not tell when the police force would be withdrawn.Dhaka Special Judge Court-3 was dealing the graft cases against BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia and eight others.On December 24, 2014, newly appointed judge Abu Ahmed Jamadar, who replaced Bashudev Roy on December 18, adjourned the graft cases till January 7, 2015.

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