A Dhaka Court has set October 8 the date for the hearing on the charge framing in the GATCO corruption case against BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and 15 others.
On Sunday, the hearing for the charge framing was scheduled in the court of Judge Ali Hossain of Dhaka's Special Court No 3.
On the day, Khaleda Zia's lawyers requested an adjournment of the charge framing hearing. The court granted the request and fixed the new date.
Khaleda Zia's lawyers Zia Uddin Zia and Hannan Bhuiyan confirmed the matter to The Bangladesh Post. On September 2, 2007, Golam Shahriar Chowdhury, deputy director of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), filed the case with Tejgaon Police Station.
The case named the then Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, her younger son Arafat Rahman Koko, and 13 others as accused. The day after the case was filed, Khaleda Zia and Koko were arrested. On September 18 of that year, the case was taken under the Special Powers Act.
On May 13, 2008, the charge-sheet was filed against 24 people, including Khaleda Zia. The charge-sheet state that the accuse awarded the contract for container handling at the Dhaka's Kamalapur Inland Container Depot (ICD) and the Chattogram Port to the contractor GATCO, causing a loss of Tk 14,56,37,616 to the state.
Among the 24 accused in this case, eight, including former minister M Saifur Rahman, died, and former Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami was acquitted from the case following the execution of his death sentence.
Currently, there are 15 accused in the case, including Khaleda Zia. The others are former minister Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, BNP Standing Committee Member Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, former chairman of Chattogram Port Authority Commodore Zulfiqar Ali, the late minister Colonel (Retd) Akbar Hossain's wife Jahanara Ansar, their two sons Ismail Hossain Saimon and AKM Musa Kajol, Ehsan Yusuf, former naval secretary Zulfiqar Haider Chowdhury, former member of Chattogram Port Authority AK Rashid Uddin Ahmed, the then GATCO director Shahjahan M Hasib, Syed Tanvir Ahmed and Syed Galib Ahmed, former chairman of the port authority ASM Shahadat Hossain, and former director (Transport) of the port AM Sanowar Hossain.
