The Supreme Court yesterday cleared the way for a lower court to continue the trial proceedings against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case. Khaleda had filed appeals with the Appellate Division, challenging two High Court decisions -- one to accept charges against the seven accused, including the opposition chief and her elder son Tarique Rahman, and another to all
ow charge framing in the case. The SC rejected both appeals. One of the two leave-to-appeal petitions was filed in 2012 against an HC ruling that rejected a petition against a lower court verdict accepting charges in the case the year before. The other was filed on July 7 this year challenging another HC verdict that upheld a lower court's order framing charges against the accused. Following the SC ruling, there is no legal bar to continuing the trial proceedings of the corruption case, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told reporters. A five-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain passed the order, as the hearing on the appeals concluded on Sunday. The Anti-Corruption Commission in 2009 filed the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case, accusing Khaleda, BNP Senior Vice Chairman Tareq and five others of embezzling over Tk 2.1 crore by forming a “fake” trust which existed only on paper. It filed Zia Charitable Trust corruption case in 2011 accusing four people, including Khaleda, of abusing power in setting up the charitable trust. Advertisement The apex court also fixed today for passing an order on another appeal by Khaleda against an HC verdict that upheld the charge framing order by the lower court in Zia Charitable Trust corruption case. Meanwhile, a Dhaka court yesterday adjourned until December 1 recording of the depositions of the witnesses in the graft cases. Judge Basudev Roy of the Special Judge Court-3 passed the order after Taherul Islam Towhid, a counsel for Khaleda, submitted petitions seeking a stay on the cases' proceedings until the SC releases the full texts of its rejection orders against the appeals. Khaleda, who was scheduled to appear before the court yesterday, was absent due to security reasons, Taherul told The Daily Star.
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