The High Court (HC) on Wednesday rejected the revision petition filed by BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia challenging framing of charges against her by the trial court in the Niko graft case.
The HC bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Md Aminul Islam passed the order after hearing the revision petition in this regard, said Anti-Corruption Commissioner’s (ACC) Counsel Khurshid Alam.
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As a result, there is no legal bar to continuing the case in the trial court, he said.
Senior lawyer AJ Mohammad Ali and Barrister Kaisar Kamal stood for the BNP chairperson and Attorney General A M Aminuddin and Additional Attorney General Mehedi Hasan Chowdhury represented the state in the court.
On December 9, 2007, the Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case accusing Khaleda and four others of causing a loss of Tk 137.77 billion to the state by signing an oil and gas exploration deal with Canadian company Niko on behalf of the state that was deemed against Bangladesh's national interests and swayed by graft.
The anti-graft body pressed charges in court against 11 people, including Khaleda, in May 2008.
The other accused in the case are former principal secretary Kamal Uddin Siddique, Khandaker Shahidul Islam, CM Yusuf Hossain, former Bapex general manager Mir Mainul Haq, Giasuddin Al Mamun, former parliamentarian MAH Selim and former vice-president of South Asia affairs of Niko Kashem Sharif.
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Among the accused, BNP Standing Committee Member Barrister Moudud Ahmed, former state minister AKM Mosharraf Hossain and former secretary of Bapex Shafiur Rahman died during the trial proceedings.
Khaleda was sent to the Old Dhaka Central Jail as a lower court sentenced her to five years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on February 8, 2018. Later, she was found guilty and convicted in another corruption case the same year.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail through an executive order suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, with the condition that she stay in her Gulshan house and not leave the country.