Bangladesh SC rejects Khaleda Zia’s plea to re-investigate graft case

In a setback to former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia, the Supreme Court today upheld a High Court judgement rejecting her plea for a re-investigation into a graft case against her.

With the apex court’s order, all the obstacles have been removed to continue a trial in a lower court against Zia, 71, the chairperson of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which does not have representation in Parliament after boycotting the 2014 general elections. Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha-led four-member bench of the Appellate Division upheld the High Court’s order rejecting the petition filed by the two-time former prime minister, The Daily Star reported.

Zia, through her lawyer AJ Mohammad Ali — a former attorney general — had sought the Supreme Court’s order for a re-investigation into a portion of the Zia Orphanage graft case against her, the report said.
Now, there is no legal bar for the lower court to continue the trial proceedings of the graft case against her, Anti-Corruption Commission’s lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said. The orphanage case is under trial at the Dhaka Special Judges Court. In March, the High Court had rejected Zia’s petition seeking its order for a fresh probe into a portion of the Zia …read more