Ex-Bangladesh PM Khaleda Zia sentenced to 7 years in another graft case
Dhaka, Oct 29 : In a major setback to Bangladesh's ailing former prime minister Khaleda Zia, a court here on Monday sentenced her to seven years in prison in a second corruption case for embezzling millions from a charitable trust in her late husband's name.
Zia, 73, who is already serving a jail term since February after being convicted in another case related embezzlement of funds of an orphanage named after her husband president Ziaur Rahman in February, was sentenced along with three others.
The latest sentence, which comes ahead of general elections in December, is related the Zia Charitable Trust.
According to the case, Zia and three others abused their power and collected USD 375,000 for the trust from unknown sources.
Judge Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman announced the verdict from the temporary premises of the court at the old central prison at Dhaka's Nazimuddin Road.
The final trial proceedings in the case went ahead in the absence of Zia after the prison authorities repeatedly failed to bring her to the court.
She had recently complained to the court that she was losing feeling in her hand and in a leg.
The Zia Charitable Trust graft case was filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission in 2011.
Zia's former political affairs secretary Harris Chowdhury, his former aide and former BIWTA acting director Ziaul Islam Munna, and former Dhaka mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka's personal secretary Monirul Islam Khan are the three others convicted in the case.
Zia's party says the charges for both cases are politically motivated.
Earlier in the day, Bangladesh's Supreme Court cleared the way for a lower court to deliver its verdict in the case by rejecting Zia's plea to halt the proceedings.
The apex court rejected a leave-to-appeal petition filed by Zia challenging the High Court judgement that allowed a lower court to continue trial in the graft case in her absence.
The court on September 20 decided to continue the trial inside the old Dhaka central jail in Zia's absence. The former premier on September 27 filed a revision petition with the High Court (HC) challenging the court's September 20 order.
On October 14, the HC rejected the revision petition of Zia and cleared the way for the trial court to continue with its proceedings. Zia had skipped appearances in the case citing illness.
On October 6, she was taken to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University hospital, where she is currently receiving treatment.
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When SC praised Col Sofiya Qureshi while granting PC to women officers in Indian Army
New Delhi (PTI): While ruling in favour of granting Permanent Commission (PC) to women officers in the Indian Army, the Supreme Court in 2020 had acknowledged the achievements of Colonel Sofia Qureshi, one of the two women officers who briefed the media on 'Operation Sindoor' on Wednesday.
In its February 17, 2020, judgement, the top court said that absolute exclusion of women from all positions, except staff assignments, in the Army was indefensible and their blanket non-consideration for command appointments without any justification cannot be sustained in law.
The apex court, which allowed Permanent Commission (PC) to women officers in the Army, said an absolute prohibition of women Short Service Commission (SSC) officers to obtain anything but staff appointments evidently did not fulfil the purpose of granting PC as a means of career advancement in the Army.
The top court also referred to the distinctions achieved by women officers, and put out an example of Col Qureshi's achievements.
"Lieutenant Colonel Sophia Qureshi (Army Signal Corps) is the first woman to lead an Indian Army contingent at a multi-national military exercise named 'Exercise Force 18', which is the largest ever foreign military exercise hosted by India.
"She has served in the United Nations Peacekeeping Operation in Congo in 2006, where she, along with others, was in charge of monitoring ceasefires in those countries and aiding in humanitarian activities. Her job included ensuring peace in the conflict affected areas," the apex court had said.
Taking note of the Centre's affidavit in the matter, the court had said that the counter affidavit contained a detailed elaboration of the service rendered by women SSC officers to the cause of the nation, working shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts.
"Yet, that role is sought to be diluted by the repeated pleas made before this court that women, by the nature of their biological composition and social milieu, have a less important role to play than their male counterparts.
"Such a line of submission is disturbing as it ignores the solemn constitutional values which every institution in the nation is bound to uphold and facilitate. Women officers of the Indian Army have brought laurels to the force," the apex court had said.
During the media briefing on Wednesday, Col Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh of the Indian Air Force (IAF) flanked Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on the dais, who delivered the opening statement from the government.
The briefing came hours after the Indian armed forces, under 'Operation Sindoor', carried out missile strikes on nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack.
Born in Gujarat's Vadodara in 1974, Col Qureshi graduated with a Master's in biochemistry from the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University in 1997.
An officer in the critical Corps of Signals, in the past, she had been picked for the role of a military observer in Congo in 2006, besides being part of flood relief operations in the Northeast region.
The officer broke the glass ceiling when in 2016, she became the first woman officer to lead its contingent at the multi-national field training exercise, Exercise Force 18, hosted by India for interoperability in sustaining peace among the ASEAN nations.
