Govt to extend Khaleda’s tenure of release 6 more months

March 8, 2021

PBC News: Ministry of Law has sent a file to the Home Ministry recommending to extend BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia’s suspended prison sentence to six months.

Law Minister Anisul Huq confirmed the matter on Monday.

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“I have already sent the file with the recommendation of further extension of suspension of Khaleda’s jail sentence to the Home Ministry. Now that Ministry will take the final decision, ” Anisul Huq said.

The tenure of suspension of Khaleda Zia’s conviction in Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust graft cases and her release on parole would be expired on March 24 this year.

On March 3, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said that an application seeking waiver of Khaleda Zia’s punishment and extending the stay on her sentence was sent to the Law Ministry.

The 76-year-old former prime minister Khaleda Zis is now staying at her Gulshan’s rented house ‘Firoza.’ She has been suffering from artheritis pain, diabetes, eyesight problems and other old-age complications.

In February 2018, Khaleda was jailed for a total of 17 years for the Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust corruption cases. She was found guilty of embezzling funds for the orphanage trusts set up while she had been serving as the prime minister. She was transferred to the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital (BSMMU) for medical treatment in April 2019. In March 2020, she was released for six months on humanitarian grounds with the conditions that she would stay at her home in Gulshan, Dhaka and would not leave the country.