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Bangladeshi ex-PM Zia appeals for withdrawal of arrest warrant

Xinhua, March 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

Bangladesh's former prime minister Khaleda Zia filed two petitions on Tuesday seeking withdrawal of arrest warrants issued against her in graft cases.

Her lawyer Barrister Mahbubuddin Khokon submitted the petitions on behalf of Zia, who is also chairperson of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Judge Abu Ahmed Jomadar denied bails for Zia on Feb. 25 after she failed to appear in the hearing of the Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust cases. He will hear the petitions on Wednesday.

Zia was indicted in both cases, while her elder son Tarique Rahman, senior vice-chairman of the BNP, in the orphanage trust case.

Bangladesh's Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case in July 2008, alleging Zia and five others, including her elder son Rahman, had embezzled over 20 million taka (253,164 U.S. dollars) from an orphanage trust during her 2001-2006 term as prime minister.

In 2011, the anti-graft body sued the BNP chief and three others for pocketing 31.5 million taka (397,435 U.S. dollars) of the Zia Charitable Trust in the name of her late husband, former President Ziaur Rahman.

Zia said the cases were political vendettas by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government. Endi