‘Court in Bangladesh doubles ex-PM Zia's jail term’
A court in Bangladesh has doubled the jail term of former prime minister Khaleda Zia for graft, her lawyers say.
According to the defense attorneys, Bangladesh’s High Court increased Zia’s sentence from five years in jail to 10 years on Tuesday.
Zia was jailed in February after being convicted along with her son and aides of embezzling 253,000 dollars in foreign donations received by an orphanage trust set up when she was last prime minister — from 2001 to 2006. Zia has denied any wrongdoing.
The first court ruling in the case against her triggered protests in the country.
The two-time former premier’s opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said the Tuesday verdict aimed to keep the 73-year-old leader and her family out of politics.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam has already told reporters that Zia “cannot participate in the election unless her verdict is scrapped.”
However, Zia’s lawyers said the ruling would be appealed and predicted that Zia would be able to participate in the December vote.
“We will go for appeal and we believe she will get justice. She will not be ineligible to run for the election due to the verdict,” Defense Attorney Sanaullah Mia told journalists.
Zia, who has been receiving treatment in hospital this month for arthritis and diabetes, did not show up for a court appearance and was not represented by a lawyer.
On Monday, she received a seven-year jail term in another corruption case for the misappropriation of 371,550 dollars from a trust in 2005.
The BNP has planned a nationwide protest against that ruling for Tuesday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Zia have nursed a long and bitter rivalry as they have dominated politics in the poverty-stricken Bangladesh for more than two decades.
Some say the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina views Zia and the BNP as the main threat to her rule in Bangladesh, a country of 160 million, mostly Muslims.
The BNP has announced that it will contest the upcoming elections unlike a previous one in 2014, which was boycotted by the party and allowed an easy return to power for Hasina.
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