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Bangladesh’s Supreme Court has upheld a High Court ruling that acquitted former premier and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia in a corruption case in which she was sentenced to seven years in jail by a lower court.
As reported by News agency PTI, A three-member Appellate Division bench headed by Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam passed the order, dismissing the plea filed by the state and the Anti-Corruption Commission challenging the High Court verdict that acquitted Zia and others, the state-run BSS news agency reported.
Zia, 79, was convicted in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case in 2018 by a Dhaka court. The court sentenced her to seven years imprisonment and fined her Taka 1 million.
On November 27 last year, the High Court allowed two separate appeals filed by Zia and two other convicts, Ziaul Islam and Monirul Islam Khan, challenging the lower court conviction and sentence in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case and acquitted them of the charges.
The state and the ACC filed the plea, challenging the High Court ruling.
In October 2018, Khaleda Zia was convicted in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment by a special court during Sheikh Hasina’s regime.
On 3 November, the High Court allowed Khaleda to begin preparations for paper books in an appeal against a lower court’s ruling that sentenced her to seven years in prison in the corruption case.
