BNP has termed lopsided the court verdict jailing its vice chairman Sadeque Hossain Khoka for 13 years’ in a graft case and claimed that he did not get justice.
“The main target of the trial was to harass Sadeque Hossain Khoka and tarnish his image. The trial process was completely with an unusual pace and the verdict was given unilaterally depriving him of his right to self-defence,” said BNP spokesman Asaduzzaman Ripon on Tuesday.Speaking at a press briefing at BNP’s Nayapaltan central office, he further said, “We think it’s a farce in the name of trial. He (Khoka) has been punished with a political motive, and he was deprived of justice through the verdict.”
Earlier in the day, a Dhaka court sentenced Sadeque Hossain Khoka to 13 years’ imprisonment in a case for amassing wealth illegally and concealing information about that. The BNP senior leader, now in the USA, was tried in absentia.
Ripon said Khoka was tried in absentia thought he went to the US for his kidney and cancer treatment with High Court permission. “When he has been undergoing treatment with an order of the apex court, it had not been lawful for the lower court to hold the trial without cancellation of the High Court’s order.”
Khoka cannot be a fugitive in the eye of law as he went to the US following a court order, the BNP leader said adding, “We think the trial process of the court was unusual.”
He also said the quick way the court has completed the trial process in the case against Kahoka by showing him a fugitive, it will remain as a bad instance in the judiciary’s history.
“Through the verdict, Khoka has been subjected to an evil design to keep him away from politics and election,” Ripon observed.
Asked about Khoka’s current health condition, Ripon said he is still undergoing kidney and caner treatment in the USA.- UNB
