BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s legal team has decided not to attend hearings of the Zia Charitable Trust graft case heard by a special court, which has now been set up inside the old jailhouse in Dhaka.
On Tuesday, the government issued a gazette notification shifting the location of the court of Dhaka’s Fifth Special Judge Md Akhtaruzzaman, which until now was set up next to the Alia Madrasa at Bakshibazar.
On Wednesday, the court convened at the new location, but none of Khaleda’s counsels appeared in the hearing.
In less than half an hour after the proceedings, the judge adjourned the court and set the next hearing for Sept 12 and 13.
Khaleda appeared in court at 12.10pm on a wheelchair. The court started the day at 12.15pm and wrapped it up at 12.43pm.
On being absent for the hearing, Khaleda’s counsels said they did not receive the gazette notification.
“We had gone to the courtroom at the Alia Madrasa grounds for the hearing, but the trial was held inside the jail,” Sanaullah Mia, a member of Khaleda’s legal team, told Bangla Tribune
Describing the gazette notification as ‘illegal and unconstitutional’, lawyer Zainul Abedin said, “We are discussing whether to initiate legal measures against it.”
Meanwhile, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir had a closed-door meeting with the party chief’s legal team at the Supreme Court premises on Wednesday.
He, however, declined to comment on the meeting to press corps waiting outside.
Sources confirmed that it was decided in the meeting that Khaleda’s counsels will not attend hearings at the court set up inside the jail.
Pro-BNP lawyer and Dhaka Bar Association President Golam Mostafa Khan, however, attended Wednesday’s hearing. Khaleda’s legal team claims that he went as an ‘observer’.
Sources said that Khan will continue to attend the hearings as an observer.
A member of Khaleda’s legal team, on condition of anonymity, said, “It has been decided that after a few hearings in absence of defence counsels, the High Court will be moved against the legality of the order.”
The State, however, says there’s no merit in challenging setting up of special courts.
“There have been instances of special courts being set up in different location. The court was moved against those then, but was overturned,” Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told the media on Wednesday.