ZIA ORPHANAGE TRUST CASE Defence ends arguments

Lawyers of Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia on Thursday concluded arguments seeking her acquittal of charge in Zia orphanage trust case saying that the Anti-Corruption Commission filed the ‘politically motivated’ case based on forged documents.
Senior jurist Moudud Ahmed, also a BNP standing committee member, made the plea before the court of judge Md Akhtaruzzaman of Dhaka Special Judges Court-5 summing up the argument on the10th day.
He also mentioned that Khaleda was facing the case and the trial was conducting in a confined way, not in a free and fair trial process.    
Khaleda appeared in the court sometimes after 11:30am.
Moudud is the fifth lawyer, who represented Khaleda during the summing up arguments. Earlier, senior jurists Zamir Uddin Saircar, AJ Mohammad Ali, Khondoker Mahbub Hossain and Abdur Razzak Khan placed arguments and sought justice in the case. 
Moudud on Tuesday submitted to the court that the commission filed the case against Khaleda with forged documents and hiding the original papers. 
‘It is a political case in guise of corruption case. The prosecution had utterly failed to prove the charges against Khaleda,’ he argued.
‘The case will not cause any harm to Khaleda Zia. It will rather increase her popularity and help her win the national election,’ he said.
‘The case would have been scrapped long ago if the three matters were analyzed. Since the case is political, it was filed to harass Khaleda Zia,’ Moudud claimed.
He said none of the papers related to the case had signatures of Khaleda.
Moudud said she was being tried under a law formed during her government. ‘We formulated the law after much research but now we see that it is used only on the opposition just like Fakhruddin-Moeen-led government,’ he added.
‘The last caretaker body had incarcerated prime minister Sheikh Hasina for 11 months by implicating her in 14 cases. It also kept Khaleda behind bars for over a year after accusing her in four cases,’ Moudud added.
On completion of Moudud’s arguments, the court adjourned the hearing and set Wednesday for arguments in favour of another accused in the cases.
On December 19, the prosecution concluded placing argument seeking life imprisonment for BNP Chief Khaleda in the case.
ACC filed Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on July 3, 2008 against Khaleda, her son Tarique Rahman, and four others on charges of embezzlement of over Tk 2.1 crore.
ACC filed the Zia Charitable Trust graft case on August 8, 2011 accusing four people, including Khaleda on charges of abusing power in setting up the Zia Charitable Trust.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net