Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Islamabad (News International/ Pakistan Point News - 15th January, 2025 ) According to reports from the country's capital Dhaka, the Bangladesh Supreme Court in a decision delivered on Wednesday, January 15, acquitted the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader in the last corruption case filed against him.
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Thus, the way has been paved for Khaleda Zia, the widow of the slain country's president Zia-ur-Rehman, to participate in the upcoming general elections in the country, which, according to the intentions of the country's interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, will be held either in December this year or in the first half of next year.
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Treatment in the UK
Khaleda Zia is currently ill and had gone to London this month to receive treatment there.
The politician's departure to the UK was made possible after the court acquitted her in another corruption case.
The corruption cases against Khaleda Zia were filed during the tenure of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Sheikh Hasina, who belongs to the Awami League, was in power for 15 years and fled Bangladesh to India at the height of student-led nationwide protests against her government in August last year.
She has taken formal asylum in India, while Bangladesh has also issued arrest warrants for Sheikh Hasina.
In addition, the Dhaka government has also formally demanded that the New Delhi government deport Sheikh Hasina and hand her over to Dhaka.
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Khaleda and Hasina are two major political rivals
Khaleda Zia, who is currently in the UK for medical treatment, and Sheikh Hasina, who has taken refuge in India, are both former prime ministers of this country.
But these two women are not only each other's biggest political rivals, but they have dominated the country's politics for decades to such an extent that there was practically no chance of any third political party coming forward decisively.
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Now, after Sheikh Hasina and her political party, the Awami League, were out of power, it has become possible for Khaleda Zia to practically return to domestic politics, and that too, perhaps successfully.
Sentence handed down by the High Court
On Wednesday, January 15, a five-member Appellate Division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court, while delivering its verdict in the last of the corruption cases filed against Khaleda Zia, overturned the 10-year prison sentence she had been sentenced to in this case years ago and acquitted her with honor.
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Khaleda Zia's sentence, which was handed down by the High Court in 2018, has now been overturned.
He was then accused of embezzling nearly $250,000 in donations.
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The donations were given to an orphanage trust that was set up in 1991 when Khaleda Zia was the prime minister of Bangladesh.
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In 2018, the High Court also sentenced Khaleda Zia's son Tariq Rehman and four other accused to ten years in prison in the case. In the Supreme Court's decision delivered on Wednesday, Khaleda Zia, along with her son Tariq Rehman and the other four accused, were acquitted.
M M / A A (Reuters, AP, AFP)
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