Bangladesh: Former PM Khaleda Zia sentenced to seven years in jail in corruption case
Zia’s former political secretary and two others were also given seven-year jail terms.
A court in Dhaka on Monday sentenced former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and three others to seven years’ imprisonment in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case, reported Dhaka Tribune. Zia is already serving a five-year jail term for embezzling funds meant for an orphanage. The two terms will run concurrently, according to Reuters.
The court also fined the four persons 10 lakh taka (Rs 8.64 lakh) each. Abul Harris Chowdhury, who was Zia’s former political secretary, Ziaul Islam Munna, assistant private secretary to Harris, and Monirul Islam Khan, assistant private secretary to former Dhaka City Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka are the three others sentenced in the case.
The Anti-Corruption Commission had filed the graft case against the accused in August 2011. According to the case statement, the former prime minister and three others abused their powers and raised 3.15 crore taka (Rs 2.72 crore) for the Zia Charitable Trust from unknown sources, reported The Daily Star.
Zia is currently undergoing treatment at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.
On February 8, Zia was sentenced to five years in prison for allegedly embezzling funds. She and five others, including her son Tarique Rahman, were accused of embezzling 21 million taka (approximately Rs 1.8 crore at current exchange rate) in foreign donations meant for the Zia Orphanage Trust, which was established during her rule between 2001 and 2006. The court sentenced the other five people to 10 years in jail.