FORMER BANGLADESH PM KHALEDA ZIA SENTENCED TO 5 YEARS IN JAIL

DHAKA: Former Bangladesh prime minister and opposition leader Khaleda Zia was jailed on Thursday for corruption but plans to appeal her five-year term, her lawyer said, as thousands of supporters took to the streets to protest her innocence.

Khaleda, 72, her son and aides were convicted of stealing 21 million taka ($253,000) in foreign donations received by an orphanage trust set up when she was last prime minister, from 2001 to 2006, lawyers said.

“She was given a shorter term considering her health and social status,” Judge Mohammad Akhteruzzaman said, as he passed sentence in a packed courtroom amid tight security.

Khaleda plans to appeal against her conviction, lawyers said, and is likely to be freed on bail during that process.

“We didn’t get justice. We’ll go to the higher court,” Khandker Mahbub Hossain, the leader of Khaleda’s legal team, said.

After the verdict, Khaleda was escorted to the central jail in the capital, a three-storey red-brick structure with barred windows surrounded by trees, to begin serving her sentence in two rooms set aside for her, jail officials said.

Khaleda’s son, Tarique Rahman, and four others were jailed

There is no need to cry. I will be alright. You all wait, I will be back. Do not worry and be strong. KHALEDA ZIA, former prime minister

for 10 years at the end of a case that lasted nearly 10 years.

Khaleda and her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) say the charges are part of a plot to keep her and her family out of politics. Party leaders said more than 3,500 supporters have been detained over the past few days.

The BNP announced a plan for protests on Friday and Saturday against what it called a “biased and compromised” ruling.

“This verdict will deepen the country’s existing political crisis and will damage people’s faith in the judiciary,” said Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary general of the BNP.