Khaleda faces 37 cases, likely to be barred from general election

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chairperson Khaleda Zia is currently facing 37 cases and the police have submitted chargesheets in 17 of them.The trial in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case has reached its final stage, with the BNP chief concluding her statement on December 5.The Dhaka special judge’s court-5 is hearing the concluding arguments in the orphanage trust graft case from December 19. The verdict will be delivered sometime after that.Many fear that the BNP chief may not be allowed to take part in the 11th general election, which is only a year away, as she is mired in a number of cases involving corruption, murder, instigation of violence, sabotage, defamation, sedition, and distortion of the history of the Liberation War in 1971.Among the 37 cases, police have submitted charges in a total of 17 cases. Of the cases, four were filed during the tenure of the Army-backed government that ruled between 2006 and 2008.The cases were filed involving corruption in Barapukuria Coal Mine,  GATCO, NIKO and Zia Orphanage Trust. After slow start, the trials in these cases have picked up momentum.If convicted, Khaleda could face life imprisonment for the charges brought against her under the Special Powers Act, while charges of sedition carry capital punishment.One of the prominent cases brought against her involves corruption in the Zia Orphanage Trust. This case was filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) against her at Ramna Police Station on July 3, 2008.The ACC charged Khaleda, her son Tarique Rahman, and four others for misappropriating over 21mn taka in grants from a foreign bank meant for the orphanage. The trial proceeding in the case has reached the final stage and the court may deliver its verdict soon.Another is the Zia Charitable Trust graft case filed by the ACC on August 8, 2011, at Tejgaon Police Station, accusing Khaleda and three others of abusing power to raise funds from unknown sources.This case is also currently under trial at the Dhaka special court in Bakshibazar. Khaleda stands accused of embezzling 61.9mn taka from the charitable trust. At present, the court is hearing the defence arguments.According to the law, if Khaleda is convicted in both cases, she may face a maximum punishment of seven years’ imprisonment in each of these cases.The former premier also faces charges of corruption for awarding contracts to international companies and causing loss to the national exchequer.Khaleda and 11 others face charges of allegedly causing a loss of 10bn taka to the national exchequer, as they awarded the contract for container handling at the Chittagong Port and the Dhaka’s Inland Container Depot to Global Agro Trade (Pvt) Company Ltd On September 2, 2007. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case with Tejgaon Police Station under the Emergency Powers Rules (EPR).The ACC also filed a case on February 26, 2008, against Khaleda and 15 others for causing a loss of 1,590mn taka to the state exchequer by awarding the contract to operate the Barapukuria coal mine to a Chinese company between June 2003 and June 2005.The deal was allegedly awarded to the highest bidder instead of the lowest one. The case proceedings in the Barapukuria coal mine case had stalled after 2012. But it was revived on August 23 this year.The BNP chief also faces graft charges for awarding a gas exploration and extraction deal to the Canadian company Niko. The charges were brought against her under the military-backed government.Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also faced similar charges for awarding a contract to Niko, but those were withdrawn in 2009 after she came to power. Of the 37 cases, four were filed during the army-backed caretaker rule while the remaining 33 cases were filed during the two consecutive tenures of Awami League since 2009, he said.“It is very clear that the cases were filed against Khaleda Zia only to keep her away from politics and preventing her from taking part in the election. It is quite unprecedented that a former prime minister faces such a huge number of cases,” added Sanaullah, also the law affairs secretary of BNP.He also alleged that the government has filed the “politically motivated” cases by using various state organs, including the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), to harass Khaleda politically.BNP vice-chairman Advocate Khandaker Mahbub Hossain termed the cases filed against Khaleda political vengeance. Referring to the Barapukuria, Niko and Gatco corruption cases against Khaleda, the BNP leader said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had also been accused in these cases, but later the cases were withdrawn.“Khaleda, being the prime minister at that time, had signed the contacts of the three projects initiated by the Awami League government.These cases filed against her reek of political motivation,” he said.Khandaker Mahbub, a former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), said that there is no merit in the cases.He expected that the situation would be resolved politically. “It will be very tough for the government to keep her (Khaleda) away from politics by handing out punishment in these cases,” he said.It would be wise for the government to withdraw the politically motivated cases in the greater interest of the country, he added.Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, who is also a criminal law expert,  suggested that the government should take initiatives to suspend the trial proceedings till the general election to be held in the next year.Khaleda Zia yesterday alleged at least 750 pro-democracy activists have disappeared after they were detained by law enforcement agencies over the last 10 years.At least 750 pro-democracy activists “have disappeared in the last 10 years”. This needs to be stopped, she said in a twitter message.The BNP chief further said: “Nineteen BNP activists, who were kidnapped by law enforcement agencies during Black December 2013,  still remain untraced.”Khaleda also tagged with her message the photos of 19 people who are missing.According to rights body Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), as many as 519 people have allegedly fallen victim to forced disappearances between 2010 and July 2017 in Bangladesh and an astonishing 329 of them were still missing.Many family members are pointing the finger at law enforcement agencies. But there have been cases in which the country’s perennially divisive politics and militancy were at play.There were cases of people who were playing truant. Many of them returned to their families while bodies of some others were discovered later. Others were arrested in different cases by the law enforcers.In Bangladesh, investigations into many of such “enforced disappearance” cases remained unsolved for years, like the disappearances of BNP leader Ilias Ali, Khulna district Chhatra Union ex-president Shamim Hossain and six youths, including BNP Dhaka City ward-38 unit general secretary Sajedul Islam Suman, from the capital. Shamim was forced into a microbus in the morning of September 29,  2011, by five to six men at the capital’s Purana Paltan Lane.As locals came forward to help, the people who took him away brandished firearms and identified themselves as people from a law enforcement agency.Since then, Shamim has been missing despite his wife Jhorna Khanam and other family members’ efforts to find him.“Every day I feel the same pain I have been enduring since the day my husband was taken away,” Jhorna told The Daily Star on August 26.“Now nobody enquires about us...neither the people in the administration nor in National Human Rights Commission,” she lamented.