Top court to hear Zia’s bail plea today

The Bangladesh Supreme Court yesterday deferred a hearing on opposition leader and former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s bail in a corruption case in which she is currently serving a five-year sentence.A four-member appellate division bench led by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain will resume the hearing of arguments from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader’s side today, the Daily Star reported.On February 8, a special court found Zia, who is also facing several other cases of corruption, violence and sedition, guilty of embezzling $252,000 in foreign donations for the Zia Orphanage Trust.She was granted a four month bail by the High Court on March 12. However, the apex court stayed the bail order following two petitions filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission and the government. Anti-Corruption Commission lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan said Zia cannot be given bail “due to the gravity of the offences she committed”.BNP secretary-general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and other senior party leaders were present in the courtroom while party activists rallied around the Supreme Court complex prompting an extra security vigil in the neighbourhood as the hearing was underway.Zia’s imprisonment shook the country’s political scenario ahead of the general elections in December this year. BNP, the main opposition outside parliament, alleged the trial was politically motivated to debar her from contesting elections, an allegation denied by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government.Political analysts feared BNP was now exposed to a political wilderness after Zia’s conviction, which is likely to disqualify her for elections unless she could obtain a different direction from the Supreme Court.