Bangladesh’s former Premier and Opposition BNP chief Khaleda Zia was on Monday granted bail after she surrendered before a court here over a nearly $2 billion corruption case in 2007 involving a Canadian company.
“The judge (Mohammad Aminul Islam) granted her bail as she surrendered but asked her to appear on December 28, setting the date for indictment hearing,” prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol said.
He said 70-year-old Khaleda was forced to surrender in line with a Supreme Court decision which had rejected her plea to quash the corruption case over contracting out a major gas field to Canada’s Niko Resources allegedly in exchange of kickbacks during her 2001-2006 tenure, causing a loss of Taka 137 billion ($1.78 billion) to the state exchequer.
Witnesses said several contingents of elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion joined the armed police to enforce an extra security measure around the court complex in Old Dhaka as Khaleda appeared on the dock escorted by a large number of pro-BNP lawyers.
During the hearing, Khaleda’s chief counsel Khandker Mahbub Hossain said, “Khaleda Zia is ill. She has been on bail before and never exploited it unfairly.” After a brief 10-minute hearing, the judge granted her bail.
The High Court on July 9, 2008 had stayed proceedings of the case.