Lawyers denied permission to meet Khaleda

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's lawyers were denied permission to meet her in the capital's old central jail yesterday.

A five-member team of lawyers, led by Masud Ahmed Talukder, sought permission from the authorities concerned to meet Khaleda around 3:00pm to have her signatures on vakalatnamas in several cases filed against her in Dhaka and Narail.

“The jail authorities informed us that they didn't have the documents relating to the cases and that is why we have been denied permission to meet her,” Masud told The Daily Star.

Khaleda landed in jail on February 8 after she was handed a five-year jail sentence by a Dhaka court for misappropriating a donation fund of the Zia Orphanage Trust.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is set to hear today four petitions filed in connection with a High Court order that granted bail to Khaleda in the Zia Orphanage Trust case.

Two of the petitions were filed challenging the HC order and two others to vacate the SC's stay order on the High Court ruling.

According to the SC website, all four petitions have been included in today's cause list of the four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain.

The attorney general's office and the Anti-Corruption Commission on Thursday filed two leave-to-appeal petitions with the SC challenging the HC order that granted bail to Khaleda.

The petitions also sought extension of the SC order that stayed the bail order until Sunday.

Earlier on Wednesday, Khaleda filed two petitions with the SC seeking the apex court's order to vacate its stay order.