Chief_Adviser
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Registration date : 2008-06-10
 |  Subject: Khaleda steps towards freedom.......................  Tue Sep 09, 2008 10:24 am | |
|  The High Court has granted Khaleda Zia three-month bail in GATCO and Niko corruption cases, clearing what lawyers say the last legal barriers to the former prime minister's freedom from prison.
The vacation bench of Justice Mirza Haider Hossain and Justice Mamnun Rahman gave the order just before midday Tuesday.
"This removes the last barrier to her release from detention," her lawyer Rafiqul Islam Miah told bdnews24.com.
Additional attorney general Monsur Habib later told reporters that the government would appeal against the bail orders in GATCO and Niko cases.
"We have already appealed to the Appellate Division for a stay on the bails in two other graft cases involving Barapukuria and Zia Orphanage Trust. The hearing will be held on Sept 15," he said.
Khaleda's chief counsel barrister Rafiq-ul-Huq said as all other accused in the case had got bail, there was no reason to keep the BNP chief anymore in detention.
"We hope she will be able to see her son in hospital after getting released by tomorrow," he said.
The cases were filed against Khaleda with a political motive that did not have any basis, Huq said.
"If cases are filed such way the people who are now in power will also face the same fate," he said.
The hearing on GATCO bail appeal started shortly after 11am.
Barrister Rafiq-ul-Huq in the hearing said that the High Court on July 9 halted the case proceedings for two months and extended the stay order by three more months on Aug 28.
Khaleda was arrested on Sept 3 last year and shown arrested in the case on Dec 21 the same year.
Eleven people were currently on bail out of 24 people accused in the case.
As the Appellate Division did not stay their bail the trial of the case would not finish soon, barrister Huq said.
Advocate Abdul Aziz Khan, who stood for the Anticorruption Commission, said in the hearing that Khaleda could not get bail in line with a section of the emergency powers rules.
The court said that if the case was filed with an ill motive, it could grant bail.
Aziz Khan said the bail appeal did not mention that the case was filed with an ill-motive.
Additional attorney general Monsur Habib also agreed with the ACC lawyer.
Later, the hearing on Niko bail appeal took place.
The court asked the defence about the total number of accused persons in the case and how many of them had been given bail.
Barrister Miah said five of a total of 11 accused got bail in the case.
The court asked defence counsels whether the Appellate Division stayed their bail. The lawyers replied in the negative.
The court then granted the former prime minister three months' bail in the two cases.
On Sunday barrister Rafique-ul-Huq appealed for bail in the GATCO case, while the petition for bail in Niko graft case had been made earlier.
The BNP chairperson secured bail in two other graft cases involving Barapukuria coal mine and Zia Orphanage Trust.
The GATCO case was filed on Sept 2 last year and the Niko case on May 5. Khaleda and some members of her cabinet were accused in the cases.
It has been alleged that the accused persons by misusing power handed the work of operating Chittagong port and Kamalapur Inland Container Depot to Global Agro Trade Company (GATCO), causing the state a loss of close to Tk 1,000 crore.
The Niko case alleges that the agreement with the Canadian company on exploration of oil and gas made the state count about Tk 13,777 crore in losses.
Khaleda and younger son Arafat Rahman Coco were arrested on Sept 3 last year, a day after the GATCO case was filed.
Coco is now receiving medical attention in Thailand on bail.
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