Bangladesh top court acquits ex-Premier Khaleda Zia in graft case

A three-member bench of the Appellate Division, led by Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam, dismissed petitions filed by the state and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) challenging the High Court’s ruling from last November.

Zia, the chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), had previously been sentenced to 7 years in prison by a lower court in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case during the tenure of her political rival, Sheikh Hasina.

Following Hasina’s departure to India amid an uprising last August, Zia was released from house arrest. Since then, courts have begun overturning what BNP claims were “politically motivated” charges against her.

BNP lawyer Mahbub Uddin Khokon told reporters that the Supreme Court rejected the appeals from the ACC and the state, affirming the High Court’s decision to dismiss the case.

Calling the charges “false,” he said the court found no evidence of misconduct against Zia, leading to her acquittal.

With this ruling, Zia has now been cleared in both the Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust cases, in which she was convicted and sentenced to prison along with financial penalties in 2018. She remains on bail in other cases.

In February 2018, Zia was jailed in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case. She was later granted temporary release in 2020 under an executive order from Hasina’s government and placed under house arrest.

On Aug. 6, a day after Hasina’s 15-year rule ended following a mass uprising, President Md. Shahabuddin used his constitutional authority to release Zia.

The 79-year-old leader left Dhaka last month for the UK to receive advanced medical treatment, marking her first foreign visit since 2017.

Zia, the widow of former President Ziaur Rahman, is currently in the UK with her son, Tarique Rahman, who has lived there since 2008.