The petition seeking extension of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia’s jail term suspension has been sent to the Law Ministry for scrutinising, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said on Wednesday.
The home minister disclosed the information while talking to reporters after a meeting on the law-and-order situation on the occasion of Independence Day at the Bangladesh Secretariat.
“We have got an application from the family of Khaleda and we have sent it to the Law Ministry,” he said.
Meanwhile, Law Minister Anisul Haque said Khaleda’s petition has arrived in the ministry.
“We will send the petition to the Home Ministry with our observation and the Home Ministry will give its opinion on it.”
On February 8, 2018, Khaleda was sent to the Old Dhaka Central Jail after a subordinate court sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case. The High Court later doubled her jail term.
The former prime minister was found guilty in another corruption case the same year. Her party claims both cases are politically motivated.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government freed Khaleda Zia from jail for six months through an executive order suspending her sentences on March 25 last year.
She was released from the prison cell of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) the same day, and she has been staying at her Gulshan house since then.
On August 27 last year, the government extended the suspension of her sentences for six more months.
