A Dhaka court yesterday adjourned the hearing of BNP chief Khaleda Zia in Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage corruption cases until January 12. Judge Abu Ahmed Jamadar of the special judge court-3 passed the order in presence of Khaleda Zia. The BNP chief appeared before the special judge court-3, set up on the playground of Government Alia Madrasah in Bakshibazar, around 11:30am in accordance with the previous court order. The BNP chief’s junior lawyers created chaos inside the courtroom during the hearing. However, the incident did not go out of control following the intervention of her senior lawyers. After the hearing in the morning, the court went for a lunch break at 1.40pm and the session began again at 2.30pm. When the judge entered the courtroom in the post-lunch session, some pro-BNP lawyers told the court that the BNP chairperson was yet to take her lunch and did not complete Johur prayer. They said Khaleda Zia could not even take her medicines. At one stage, advocate Hossen Ali Khan, one of the pro-BNP lawyers, kept shouting and hitting the table with his hand repeatedly. The court asked him to offer unconditional apology failing which the court would take action against him. The senior lawyers, then, intervened  to bring the situation under control. Later, advocate Hossen Ali Khan offered unconditional apology as per the court directive. Around 3pm, the judge deferred the hearing till January 12. Soon after the court order, Khaleda Zia left the court premises along with other BNP leaders including the party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, senior joint secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, standing committee member Mirza Abbas, and others leaders and activists. On December 15, Judge Abu Ahmed Jamadar of the special judge court-3 had asked Khaleda to appear before it on December 22 after hearing a petition seeking time on grounds of her ill-health. The special court had also said that Khaleda Zia’s bail would be cancelled if she failed to appear before the court on that day. Later, the court deferred the hearing of Khaleda’s presentation of self-defence and set the date for January 5.
On December 1, Khaleda Zia had pleaded not guilty in the court, rejecting the charge of abuse of power while managing the funds of the Zia Charitable Trust during her tenure as prime minister. Earlier, the court had completed recording depositions in the Zia Charitable Trust graft case after recording the testimonies of 32 prosecution witnesses. The court had also recorded the depositions of 32 such witnesses in the Zia Orphanage graft case. Recording of depositions will be completed in the case following completion of cross-examination of ACC deputy director Harun-ur-Rashid, also the investigating officer of the case. On August 8, 2011, the ACC filed the Zia Charitable Trust case with the Tejgaon police station, accusing four people, including Khaleda Zia, of raising funds for the trust from unknown sources.