The Anti-Corruption Commission on Sunday informed the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court that there was no misappropriation of funds of the Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Orphanage Trust and that the money remained unused in the trust鈥檚 account.
On February 8, 2018, a Dhaka Special Judge鈥檚 Court sentenced Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia to five years while five others, including her eldest son Tarique Rahman, were jailed for varying terms on the charge of embezzling Tk 2.10 crore from the orphanage trust.
The case alleged that the funds, intended for the trust, had been transferred to a private account.
Later, on October 30, 2018, the High Court Division doubled Khaleda鈥檚 sentence to 10 years following a petition by the ACC.
The High Court also dismissed the ex-prime minister鈥檚 appeal for acquittal.
ACC counsel Asif Hasan announced the commission鈥檚 revised stance, now in favor of Khaleda鈥檚 acquittal, before a three-member Appellate Division bench chaired by Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to give its decision on her appeal on Monday by determining whether her sentence will be overturned.
The case, filed on July 3, 2008, under a military-backed caretaker government, initially claimed that Khaleda abused her position as a prime minister from 1991 to 1996 by misappropriating Tk 2.10 crore of the Tk 4.44 crore donated by the Saudi King to the Prime Minister鈥檚 Office for building the orphanage.
During hearings, Khaleda鈥檚 lawyers, Zainul Abedin and Kayser Kamal, argued that the conviction was 鈥榦ne-sided鈥� and politically motivated.
Attorney general Md Asaduzzaman suggested that the case was a form of political harassment, targeting Khaleda and her family members under both the army-backed interim government and the subsequent Awami League regime.
On November 3, 2024, the High Court also agreed to hear Khaleda鈥檚 separate appeal in the Zia Charitable Trust case, in which she was sentenced to jail for seven years in 2018.
Her sentences involving the cases relating to Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust were remitted by the president on August 6, a day after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime amid a student-mass uprising on August 5.
The BNP chairperson is now facing 16 other cases.
After the fall of the Hasina regime, different courts dismissed 19 cases against Khaleda.
The BNP chief鈥檚 lawyers argued that the president remitted Khaleda鈥檚 sentences while the appeal remained pending with the court.
Khaleda did not request administrative relief and she sought a legal resolution instead as it was a politically motivated case, they contended.
In March 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the then Awami League regime, under an executive order, granted Khaleda鈥檚 conditional and temporary release due to her poor health condition.
The time of her release was extended several times until her sentences were remitted by the president.
