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Bangladesh's Ex-PM Khaleda Zia appears in anti-graft court

Xinhua, May 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

Bangladeshi ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia appeared at a makeshift court in old part of capital Dhaka for hearing in two graft cases against her.

The court Monday adjourned till June 18 the hearing in the Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust graft cases.

Judge Abu Ahmed Jamadar of the Special Judge Court-3 passed the order in presence of Khaleda Zia, also chairperson of her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in the courtroom.

The court came up with the adjournment order in response to a petition filed by the defense seeking more time for cross- examining a witness in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case.

The court on April 5 granted her bail in the cases saying that she and the two other accused must appear before it on every date. Bangladesh's Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) filed one of the cases in July 2008, saying that Khaleda and five others including her elder son Tarique 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.

Khaleda often said political vendettas are to blame for the cases against her and her sons during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina 's incumbent government, against which she has been leading the opposition procession from her party. Endi