Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia was finally freed on Tuesday after Sheikh Hasina led government was toppled amid an overwhelming public protest.
The President passed the order through the Article 49 of the Constitution, reads a gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday.
Article 49 of the Constitution states “The President shall have power to grant pardons, reprieves and respites and to remit, suspend or commute any sentence passed by any court, tribunal or other authority.”
The former premier Khaleda, 78, has long been suffering from various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, kidney, lung, heart, eye problems and post-Covid complications.
The BNP chief was sent to Dhaka Central Jail on Nazimuddin Road in Old town in the capital on February 8 following a five-year imprisonment by a lower court in Zia orphanage Trust graft case. The High Court around nine months later doubled the jail term.
The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the graft case on July 3 in 2008, accusing Khaleda Zia for misappropriating Tk 2.10 crore from the trust. The court also awarded seven-year imprisonment to Khaleda Zia in Zia Charitable Trust graft case in October 2018.
The ACC on August 8 in 2011 filed the Zia Charitable Trust graft case with Tejgaon Police Station accusing four people, including Khaleda, of raising funds for the trust from unknown sources abusing power.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail through an executive order by suspending her sentence on 25 March 2020 with conditions that she would stay at her Gulshan house and would not leave the country.
Since then, her release term has been extended every six months following the family’s plea. President Mohammed Shahabuddin
made the decision of setting Khaleda Zia free after a meeting with the chiefs of the armed forces, different political parties, members of civil society and representatives from the Anti-discrimination Student Movement on Monday.
The meeting also decided that people and members of the Anti-discrimination Student Movement who had been detained between Jul 1 and Aug 5 in connection with a number of cases must be freed.
Khaleda Zia, who was sentenced 17-year jail term on two separate corruption charges, got the taste of freedom as President Mohammed Sahabuddin pardoned and reprieved the sentence exercising his power under Article 49 of the Constitution.
Meanwhile, as per the decision, over 2,200 leaders and activists of BNP, Jamaat and other opposition parties, were released on bail on Tuesday.
Separate Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Courts in Dhaka on Tuesday granted their bail prayers in cases lodged over recent turmoil across the country marking quota reform movement.
The accused that have been granted bail include BNP standing committee members Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, Nazrul Islam Khan, Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, Shamsur Rahman alias Shimul Biswas, Saiful Alam Nirob, Rafikul Alam Maznu, Jamaat Secretary General Mia Golam Parwar and Bangladesh Jatiya Party Chairman Andaleev Rahman Partho.
Thousands of people had been arrested across the country as agitated students took to the streets, demanding reform quota in government jobs.
Of them, BNP leader Giasuddin Al Mamun was got bail in a case filed over embezzlement.
Mamun, a close business associate of BNP’s Tarique Rahman, was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined Tk12 crore.
The ACC submitted a charge sheet over Mamun for siphoning off £4,18,853 to the UK.
Mamum was arrested on January 31, 2007, during the military-backed caretaker government’s term and has been in jail since then.
Several cases including extortion, corruption, money laundering and tax evasion, were filed against Mamun.
Besides, BNP leaders, including Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, Ruhul Kabir Rizvi and Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Mia Golam Parwar, Bangladesh Jatiya Party (BJP) Andaleeve Rahman Partho, Gono Adhikar Parishad president and former Ducsu vice-president Nurul Haque Nur, among others, were also released on bail in separate cases filed during the quota reform movement.
The bail application was made on Tuesday at the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Court. After the hearing, the judge granted them bail.
Notable accused, BNP Chairperson’s special assistant Shamsur Rahman alias Shimul Biswas, BNP joint secretary general Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Annie, Dhaka Metropolitan North BNP convener Saiful Alam Nirab, South convener Rafiqul Islam Majnu, 12-party coordinator Syed Ehsanul Huda, BNP publicity secretary Sultan Salahuddin Tuku, Dhaka Metropolitan North member secretary Aminul Haque, and Bagerhat District BNP convener MA Salam.
