The High Court (HC) on Wednesday fixed August 14 for holding a further hearing on a plea filed by BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia challenging the lower court order that framed charges against her in the Niko graft case.
A High Court division bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Md Aminul Islam passed the order after holding a hearing in part in this regard.
Barrister Kaiser Kamal took part in the hearing for the BNP chief, while Advocate Khurshid Alam Khan argued for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
The anti-graft body filed the case against five including Begum Khaleda Zia with Tejgaon police station on December 9, 2007, for abusing power in signing a deal with Canadian company Niko for exploring and extracting gas.
The ACC on May 5 in 2008, submitted the charge sheet against 11 people including Khaleda Zia. The ACC accused them of causing incurring a loss of more than Taka 13 thousand crores to the state exchequer by signing that deal.
Dhaka Special Judge's Court-9 framed charges against Khaleda and seven others. The other accused in the case are- Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, Khandaker Shahidul Islam, CM Eusuf Hossain, Mir Moinul Haque, Gias Uddin Al Mamun, Selim Bhuiyan, and Kashem Sharif.
Counsel of Begum Khaleda Zia later filed the appeal, challenging the indictment order and pleading to quash it.
