A Dhaka court Monday started the trial of former Prime Minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia on corruption charges in her absence.
Ms. Zia has been charged with embezzlement in two cases that could lead to sentencing for life if found guilty, the Daily Star reported.
Judge Bashudeb Roy of Special Judge’s Court-3 began the trial with recording deposition of plaintiff Harun-ur-Rashid, deputy director of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
Earlier in the day, the court accepted two separate petitions filed by defence seeking Ms. Zia’s exemption from appearing before the court for security reasons.
On March 19, the judge indicted Ms. Zia, her son Tarique Rahman, and seven others in the cases filed by the ACC.
The ACC accused them of embezzlement by forming the Zia Orphanage Trust that exists only on paper.
The complainant alleged that a grant of $1,255,000 was transferred from the United Saudi Commercial Bank to the Prime Minister’s Orphanage Fund created by Ms. Zia, who was then the Prime Minister, shortly before the transfer was made on June 9, 1991.
The second case is against Zia’s and three others who abused power to set up a charitable trust named after Ms Zia’s husband, late Ziaur Rahman.
The ACC said that the money spent for establishing the trust was collected from various sources, using the influence of the office of Prime Minister in 2005.
