Dhaka Court issues arrest warrant against Khaleda Zia

A Dhaka court has issued an arrest warrant against former prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Chairperson Khaleda Zia after she failed to appear before it in connection with two corruption cases.

The court also rejected the time petitions filed by the BNP chief's lawyers in the Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust corruption cases.

According to the Dhaka Tribune, Khaleda's lawyers Mohammad Sanaullah Mia and Barrister Mahbub Uddin Khokon had filed two separate petitions with the court, saying that Zia could not appear before the court due to a six-hour hartal enforced by the leftist parties and security reasons.

The Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) filed the Zia Charitable graft Trust case with Tejgaon police station on August 8, 2011, accusing Khaleda, her son Tarique Rahman and four others of raising funds for the trust from unknown sources through abuse of power.

Earlier, the ACC had also filed Zia Orphanage Trust graft case on July 3, 2008, against Khaleda, her son and four others for misappropriating over Tk 2.10 crore that was received as grants for orphans through a foreign bank.