The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Monday stayed the High Court order that had doubled the 5-year sentence of former Prime Minister and BNP chairperson and Khaleda Zia to 10-year sentence in much-talked about Zia Orphanage Trust graft case.
The three-member Appellate Division bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Ashfaqul Islam gave the order in the morning.
At the same time, the court also allowed Khaleda Zia to appeal against the High Court verdict. The judges also gave directions to submit a summary of the case within two weeks.
Earlier on Sunday (November 10), a lawyer of the Anti-Corruption Commission said no money had been amassed from Zia Orphanage.
The ruling comes in response to two leave-to-appeal petitions filed by her lawyers, where she challenged a High Court ruling that increased her jail sentence in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.
Filed on March 14 in 2019 through her lawyer, Khaleda's petitions seek to overturn the High Court's order that extended her prison term from five to 10 years. Khaleda Zia has asked the top court to nullify this extended sentence.
Khaleda Zia was initially imprisoned on February 8 in 2018, when a special court in Dhaka sentenced her to five years in prison for her involvement in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft incident.
Later, in response to an appeal by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the High Court, on October 30 of the same year, increased her sentence to 10 years.
The Zia Orphanage graft case was filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission in July 2008, accusing Khaleda of misappropriating over Tk2.10 crore that was received as grants for orphans via a foreign bank.
In August 2011, the ACC 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 and abusing power.
The 79-year-old former prime minister has long been suffering from various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, kidney, lung, heart, eye problems, and post-Covid complications.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail through an executive order by suspending her sentence on March 25 in 2020, with the condition that she would stay at her Gulshan house and not leave the country.
Since then, her release term has been extended every six months following the family's plea.
On November 3 this year, the High Court allowed Khaleda to begin preparations for paper books in her separate appeal against a lower court's ruling that sentenced her to seven years in prison in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.
