Today was fixed for holding the indictment hearing, but Judge AHM Ruhul Imran of Dhaka Special Judge Court-2 reset the date as Begum Khaleda Zia once again failed to appear before the court because of her ‘poor health condition’.
Her lawyer Adv Zia Uddin Zia filed the time plea, which was eventually accepted.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on February 26, 2008, filed the graft case against Khaleda Zia and 15 others with Shahbagh Police Station.
They were accused of incurring a loss of Taka 159 crore of state exchequer by awarding a contract for operation of Barapukuria Coalmine to a Chinese company through abuse of power.
The anti-graft body on October 5, 2008, filed the charge-sheet against the accused.
The 16 accused are- Begum Khaleda Zia, M Saifur Rahman, Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, Matiur Rahman Nizami, Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, MK Anwar, M Shamsul Islam, Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Barrister Aminul Huq, AKM Mosharraf Hossain, Nazrul Islam, SR Osmani, Moinul Ahsan, Md Sirajul Islam and Moazzem Hossain.
Of the 16, convicted war criminals Nizami and Mojaheed have been hanged and four others have died of natural causes and their names are expected to be dropped from the case during framing of the charges.
