The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) will move the court for video conferencing with BNP Khaleda Zia for the hearings of the Zia Charitable Trust graft case.
The graft watchdog’s counsel coined the idea on Thursday, when the court of Dhaka’s Fifth Special Judge Md Akhteruzzaman rescheduled a hearing as the jail authorities did not produce the former prime minister on the grounds of her physical condition.
The court extended Khaleda’s bail in the case until Apr 22, when it would resume the hearing.
ACC counsel Mosharraf Hossain told the court on Thursday, “The others defendants are here and Khaleda Zia can appear through video-conferencing.”
Bangladesh’s law provides that scope, he said citing the recent example of an Indian politician who attended hearings through video-conferencing.
Objecting the motion, defence counsel Abdur Rezak Khan said that there are High Court directives over how a court will run its proceedings. “Video-conferencing for court hearings … why do we need that!”
ACC counsel Hossain argued Khaleda is not seriously ill. She has been suffering from arthritis. “She is not taking medicines prescribed by the medical board.”
Khan replied that the ACC counsel’s statement was untrue and that it was the jail authorities have not informed anything like that.
The ACC started the Zia Charitable Trust graft case in 2011 against the BNP chief and three others for embezzlement of Tk 31.5 million.
The others accused in the case are Khaleda’s former political secretary Harris Chowdhury, his former personal assistant Ziaul Islam Munna, who is now the acting director (naval security and traffic) of BIWTA, and former Dhaka City mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka’s personal assistant Monirul Islam Khan.
Harris has been absconding since the case was started while Munna and Monirul made appearances in court.