Staff Correspondent:

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the prosecution have filed an appeal at the Appellate Division challenging a High Court verdict that acquitted BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, scrapping her seven-year sentence, from the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.

An Appellate Division bench led by Justice Md Ashfaqul Islamon Sunday  (February 23 ) fixed 2 March to hear the appeal, confirmed Khaleda’s lawyer Advocate Maksud Ullah.

Advocate Asif Hossain represented the ACC during the hearing while Additional Attorney General Aneek R Haque stood for the state.

Maksud, Barrister Kayser Kamal, and Barrister Ruhul Quddus Kajal represented the former prime minister during the hearing.

On 27 November last year, the High Court heard an appeal acquitted Khaleda from a seven-year sentence in the case. Two others convicted and sentenced in the case were also acquitted based on their appeals.

The ACC filed the case with Tejgaon police on 8 August 2011 accusing Khaleda and three others of abusing power to raise funds for the trust from unknown sources.

In October 2018, a special court found Khaleda guilty of abusing power as the prime minister during her second term to collect and spend Tk6.52 crore for different purposes, including the purchase of 42 kathas of land in the capital for setting up Zia Charitable Trust.

At the time, the BNP chief was already in jail as she was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment by a special court in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on 8 February 2018. The High Court later doubled her jail term in that case.

On 3 November last year, the High Court allowed Khaleda to begin preparations for paper books at her own cost in an appeal against the lower court’s ruling in the Charitable Trust case.

Previously, on 6 August, Khaleda, who had been out of jail for years and receiving medical treatments at various hospitals on an executive order and its extensions, was declared completely free after President Mohammed Shahabuddin commuted her prison terms.

The pardon came just a day after Sheikh Hasina resigned as the prime minister and fled the country to India in the face of a mass uprising that toppled the Awami League government.

Even though the BNP chairperson has been freed, she will not be able to participate in the elections within the next five years.