Clashes as Zia jailed on embezzlement charges

DHAKA: A Bangladesh judge convicted opposition leader Khaleda Zia of corruption and sentenced her to five years in jail as police clashed with thousands of her supporters outside the court yesterday.

The court found the two-time former premier guilty of embezzling money meant for an orphanage, a charge she had consistently dismissed as politically motivated.

Zia, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), is expected to appeal against the verdict, but it may affect her ability to stand in a general election slated for December.

“This is a false and staged case. No way we will accept this verdict,” BNP secretary-general Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said.

Zia’s lawyer, Khandkar Mahbub Hossain, said the ruling was “political vengeance”.

Ahead of the hearing police fired tear gas at thousands of opposition activists who defied heavy security to escort the car taking Zia to the magistrates court.

The private television station Somoy said at least five police officers had been injured and two motorcycles torched during the clashes that broke out several kilometres from the court premises.

Authorities have for days been on high alert for protests in the tense city, where political demonstrations by Zia’s centre-right BNP and its Islamist allies in 2014 and 2015 left nearly 200 people dead.

Around 3,500 opposition activists and officials were arrested in a sweep by security forces ahead of the verdict, according to BNP spokesman Rizvi Ahmed.

Zia, 72, is a former ally turned archfoe of Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Her party boycotted 2014 polls in which Ms Hasina was reelected but is expected to contest the upcoming general election.

Zia, who entered politics in the mid-1980s after her military dictator husband was assassinated in an abortive coup, also faces dozens of separate charges related to violence and corruption.

She has repeatedly said the charges against her are aimed at excluding her and her family from politics. Her son Rahman lives in exile in London and was convicted of money-laundering in 2016.

Last month prosecutors sought the death penalty over his alleged role in a deadly 2004 grenade attack that injured Ms Hasina. Zia and her son were detained by an army-backed government in 2007 and spent a year and a half in detention pending trials for alleged corruption.

“This is an attempt to use the court against me, in an effort to sideline me from politics and elections and to isolate me from the people,” she said on Wednesday.