The High Court has thrown out former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s petition to review its earlier decision that scrapped her plea to halt case proceedings in Zia Charitable Trust graft case.
The bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice JBM Hassan issued the order on Thursday.
Badruddoza Badal, a lawyer for BNP Chairperson Khaleda, said they had filed the petition as the rule to administer oath of witnesses by ‘God’ was not followed while recording statements of 32 witnesses presented by his client.
He said they would move the Appellate Division challenging the High Court order. Former attorney general AJ Mohammad Ali also argued for Khaleda.
Khurshid Alam Khan, who stood for the Anti Corruption Commission, said the High Court also ordered the law secretary and the registrar general to follow the circular issued by the Supreme Court in 2009 on taking oath properly in all the cases in the future.
Khaleda filed the revision petition on Dec 6 after another bench of the High Court rejected her plea to halt the case proceedings and record afresh the testimonies of the 32 witnesses.
The trial in the case over illegal transaction of nearly Tk 31.55 million is under way at Dhaka’s Third Special Judge’s Court set up in Dhaka’s Bakshibazar.
The BNP chief had failed to get the proceedings of the Zia Charitable Trust graft case, started in 2010, several times in the High Court.
She pleaded not guilty to the charge of embezzling the money from the charity.
Earlier on Thursday, she appeared before the court in Bakshibazar. It set Jan 26 to hear Khaleda’s defence statement. She started delivering the statement on Dec 1.
The others accused in the case are Khaleda’s former political secretary Harris Chowdhury, his former personal assistant Ziaul Islam Munna, who is now the acting director (naval security and traffic) of BIWTA, and former Dhaka City mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka’s personal assistant Monirul Islam Khan.
Harris has been absconding since the case was started while Munna and Monirul have submitted statements in their defence to the court.http://bdnews24.com/politics/2017/01/12/khaleda-loses-review-appeal-in-hc-to-halt-zia-charitable-trust-graft-case-proceedings
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