The High Court (HC) on Wednesday scrapped 11 cases including one for sedition and 10 for acts of sabotage against former prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia. All of these cases were filed against her during the ousted Awami League regime.
The HC bench comprising Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain passed the order after the final hearing on 11 separate petitions filed by Khaleda.
Senior lawyers Zainul Abedin, Barrister AM Mahbub Uddin Khokon, Barrister Nasir Uddin Asim, Barrister Kaiser Kamal, Barrister Ragib Rauf Chowdhury, Advocate Gazi Kamrul Islam Sajal, Advocate Md Zakir Hossain, Barrister HM Sanjid Siddique, Advocate Tareq Bhuiya, and Advocate M Sabbir Ahmed represented Khaleda Zia in the court.
Among the cases, one was filed on charge of sedition, seven were filed with Darus Salam police station and three with Jatrabari police station on charge of sabotage during the anti-government movement in 2015.
Khaleda's name was either present in the First Information Report (FIR) or was included in the charge sheets of these cases. The trial proceedings of the cases remained stayed for long following a High Court order.
The HC on Wednesday scrapped these cases after making the rule absolute on these cases following a petition by Khaleda Zia.
The sedition case was filed against Khaleda for her remarks about the number of martyrs in the Liberation War. The BNP chief had been on bail in all these cases.
Advocate Zainul Abedin told reporters that there was no evidence that Khaleda Zia was present on the spot or gave any order in any of the cases filed on charges of sabotage.
Police submitted charge sheets in the cases unnecessarily, he said.
Khaleda was sent to Old Dhaka Central Jail on February 8, 2018, after a special court sentenced her to five years in prison in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.
On October 30, 2018, the High Court raised her punishment to 10 years. Later, she was convicted in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail after 776 days through an executive order suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, with conditions that she would stay at her Gulshan house and not leave the country.
On August 6, Khaleda Zia was completely freed by an order of president Mohammed Shahabuddin.
