The Bangladesh government, citing security reasons has set up a new makeshift court adjacent to a prison outside Dhaka to try ailing former prime minister Khaleda Zia, serving 10-year jail term in two graft cases.
Zia, 73, was sent to jail in February last year by a localcourt on charges of embezzling foreign donations meant for an orphanage, namedafter her slain husband and president Ziaur Rehman, during her premiershipbetween 2001 and 2006.
Rehman was thefounder of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Last month, she was shifted to theBangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University for treatment after spending morethan a year in the Dhaka’s century-old jail, where she was the only prisoner.
“The Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairshas issued a notice for transferring the trial court,” Zia’s lawyerMosharraf Hossain Kazol was quoted as saying by the bdnews24.Com on Monday. Earlier, a temporary court was set up near theold jail in the Dhaka’s Nazimuddin, said Kazol, an anti-Corruption Commissionlawyer. Zia facing several other pendingcriminal and graft charges as well and legal process are underway to initiateher trial in those cases as well. “A makeshift court would be set up in front of the new building ofthe Central jail in the Keraniganj, on outskirts of Dhaka for securityreasons,” he said, adding all her 17 cases would be shifted to the newcourt. Apart from graft cases, thetemporary court will hear eight cases of sabotage initiated by the capital’sDarus Salam Police, a case over an arson attack on a bus in Jatrabari, andthree defamation suits, he said.