Dhaka, March 6 – Former BNP lawmaker Kazi Salimul Haque, convicted with BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case yesterday filed an appeal with the High Court Division of the Supreme Court challenging the verdict that sentenced him to 10 years in the prison.Salimul Haque, imprisoned after the verdict, yesterday submitted the appeal to the concerned office of the High Court through his lawyer seeking to the apex court to acquit him of the corruption charges and to scrap the trial court verdict against him.
Advocate Palash Chandra Roy, his lawyer told newsmen that he would move the appeal before the High Court on Tuesday for its acceptance. If the court accepts the appeal, Salimul Haque will file a petition with this apex court seeking bail in the case, the lawyer said.
Khaleda Zia, who landed in prison on February 8, has filed an appeal with the High Court on February 20 challenging the special court’s
verdict that sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment. The convicts were also fined in the case.
On February 22, the BNP Chairperson filed another petition with the High Court seeking bail in the same case. The same day, the court accepted Khaleda Zia’s appeal, stayed the lower court order that fined her and asked the court to forward the case records to it within 15 days.
After a hearing, the High Court on February 25 said it will deliver an order on her bail prayer after getting the case records from the lower court. But, the lower court is yet to send the case records to the High Court.
On February 8, the Special Judge Court-5 of Dhaka sentenced Khaleda Zia to five years’ rigorous imprisonment as it had found her and five others including Salimul Haque guilty in the case.
The court also sentenced the former Prime Minister’s son Tarique Rahman, now the acting chairman of the BNP, Salimul Haque and three others to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment each, and fined them a total of Tk 2.10 crore, saying that all the six convicts have to pay the fine in equally.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case with Ramna Model Police Station in 2008, accusing the six of misappropriating over Tk 2.1 crore that came from a foreign bank as grants for orphans. – Special Correspondent
