Bangladesh Supreme Court to hear Khaleda Zia's bail plea tomorrow

Dhaka [Bangladesh]: The Supreme Court of Bangladesh will on Sunday hear four separate petitions filed in connection with a high court order that granted bail to former prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson Khaleda Zia in connection with the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.

Two of the petitions have challenged the high court's decision to grant bail, while the third and fourth petitions have been filed for vacating the Supreme Court order that stayed the bail.

According to the website of the apex court, all four petitions have been included as items No 9 and 10 on Sunday's cause list placed before a four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain.

On Thursday, according to the Daily Star, the government and the Anti-Corruption Commission had filed two separate leave-to-appeal petitions with the Supreme Court challenging the grant of bail to Khaleda Zia by the high court.

On Wednesday, Khaleda had filed two separate petitions with the Supreme Court for vacating its order that stayed her bail hours after the high court order.

The BNP chief has been sentenced to five years' imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.

The case relates to corruption over the misuse of funds in a charity named after former President Zia-ur- Rahman, Khaleda Zia's husband, who was assassinated in 1981.

On August 8, 2011, the Bangladesh Anti Corruption Commission filled the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case in the Tejgaon Police Station. Initially, four people, including Khaleda Zia were the accused in the case. The other three were Harris Chowdhury, former political secretary to Khaleda Zia, Zia-ul Islam Munna, incumbent acting director of naval security and traffic in the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, and the personal assistant to former mayor of Dhaka, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Monirul Islam Khan.

In all, there are now six accused in this case, including Khaleda Zia's son Tarique Rahman. The case has accused them of embezzling 21 million Taka from the trust.

Khaleda was given a five-year imprisonment and has been in jail since February 8.

Courts in Bangladesh have a long tradition of granting bail to a convict or an accused if the person is a woman, Khaleda, 73, and has been suffering from various chronic degenerative medical conditions.