Zia's 'emotional' lawyers delayed her privileges in jail: Government

The 72-year-old three-time former prime minister and main opposition leader was on February sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment by Dhaka's Special Court in connection with the embezzlement of 21 million taka (about USD 250,000) in foreign donations meant for the Zia Orphanage Trust, named after her late husband Ziaur Rahman, a military ruler-turned-politician.

"The 'learned' defence team of Zia on that day (of verdict) was busy in shedding tears as much as they could. But they did not file the required prayer for her division status," Huq told reporters on the side-lines of a function.

Prison authorities accommodated Zia for three days in a refurbished abandoned office of a prison official in Dhaka’s old central jail, which is now relocated on the outskirts of the capital, after she was awarded the sentence.

Four days after the verdict was delivered, the prison authorities received a court directive ordering the special division facilities for Zia and allow her personal domestic aide Fatema Begum to be inside the jail as her companion.

BNP earlier accused the government of keeping Zia in solitary confinement at the abandoned jail, depriving her of the privileges and alleged that the authorities were yet to issue the "certified copy" of the judgement required for their subsequent legal actions to challenge the verdict and seek her bail.

"She suffered due to the faults of her 'wise' lawyers...should we take the responsibility for that," Huq said but added that she was awarded the division status instantly after the defence lawyers filed the prayer in the court in line with the legal procedures.

Huq reiterated his earlier comments regarding the delay in issuing the certified copy of the judgement, saying it was entirely a court affair with government having no stake in the process but it could take them some time to obtain the 632-page document because of its length.

A lawyer by background, Huq, however, said the law demands the court to issue instantly the certified copy of a judgement only if it is a case of death penalty while in other cases the "logical timeframe" is the limit.

The minister said the government wanted the BNP chief to exhaust her legal options in challenging the lower court verdict in the High Court to let the law take its own course as "we want do everything to establish rule of law in society".

"But the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina believes that none is above law," he said. BNP supporters in the past several days staged non-violent street protests across the country, demanding the party chief’s release.

Legal experts say Zia’s imprisonment would disqualify her from contesting the next general elections slated for December this year unless the Supreme Court comes up with a different direction during the appeal process.

The protests ahead of the verdict saw arrests of hundreds of BNP activists and mid ranking leaders but fears of more aggressive government actions visibly debarred the opposition to discard tougher street actions.

BNP boycotted the general election in 2014, but Zia appears to be seeking to contest the next polls but analysts said the party is now virtually exposed to a political wilderness after Zia’s conviction.

“This verdict will hamper a participatory and fair election. If there is no attempt to remove this obstacle, we will be affected as a nation...after the judgement, doubts over a fair election has increased,” pro-BNP economist Professor Mahbub Ullah said. BNP named Zia’s “convicted and fugitive” son Tarique Rahman as the acting party chief after the verdict was delivered, a week after amending the party constitution which until then debarred any corrupt element with moral turpitude from being a party leader.

Several courts earlier declared him “fugitive” as Rahman preferred to live in London apparently to evade justice while he was convicted and jailed for 10 years in absentia on the same charges as Zia.

Rahman is also being tried on several charges including the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on a rally of the then opposition Awami League when 23 people were killed and Hasina narrowly escaped the attack.

The government earlier criticised BNP for installing him as the acting party chief while the law minister today called BNP leaders "shameless" as they amended the party constitution overnight to install a "fugitive criminal" as its highest leader.

"They made a fugitive criminal (Tarique Rahman) as the acting (BNP) chairman...this is their real identity," Huq said.