Opposition leader gets double time
New jail term for Bangladesh’s Zia angers supporters
DHAKA: A Bangladesh court doubled a jail term for imprisoned opposition leader Khaleda Zia from five to 10 years for what her supporters say are trumped-up corruption charges.
The decision came a day after Zia, arch-rival of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was given a seven-year term for other graft charges.
The prosecution said that Zia, 73, will serve the sentences concurrently, while her lawyers said the former prime minister would appeal the latest ruling in Bangladesh’s highest court.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which Zia has led from Dhaka Central Jail since being incarcerated in February, protested against the decision and vowed nationwide demonstrations later yesterday.
The February corruption verdict triggered clashes between police and thousands of BNP loyalists.
The prosecution had demanded Zia serve more time for embezzling orphanage money – an appeal a higher court granted.
“The high court upheld the lower court verdict and raised the jail sentence from original five years to 10 years,” anti-corruption commission prosecutor Khurshid A Khan said.
Zia has always denied the many charges she faces, saying she is being pursued in court to prevent her challenging Hasina in a general election slated for December.
Zia boycotted the 2014 general election which Hasina won, sparking violence across the Muslimmajority democracy of 160 million.
The latest court ruling deals a crushing blow to the BNP and its embattled leader, who is running out of time to appeal the courts to let her run.
‘She cannot contest the elections unless the conviction is set aside by a higher court,” Bangladesh’s attorney general Mahbubey Alam said.
Her lawyer, Sanaullah Mia, said Zia questioned whether her appeal would get a fair hearing in the Supreme Court.
“She had already expressed fear that she would not receive justice, and then this happens. There is no justice,” he said.
This latest court ruling comes as the independence of Bangladesh’s judiciary is under question.
In a recently published memoir, a former chief justice alleged he was forced into exile after disagreeing with Bangladesh’s powerful intelligence services over a case.
Another judge, who also lives in exile in Malaysia, made similar remarks in a television interview, alleging he was threatened to hand down a guilty verdict against Zia’s son Tarique Rahman. — AFP