Bangladesh transfers judge in Khaleda Zia corruption cases

The judge hearing two corruption cases against Bangladesh Opposition leader and former prime minister Khaleda Zia and eight others has been transferred midway during the trial.
Judge Bashudev Roy, who has been hearing the cases untill now, would now be a special judge in Patuakhali, and will be replaced by Abu Ahmed Jomadar, a district judge and joint secretary to the Ministry of Law.
Mizanur Rahman, deputy secretary of the law ministry, told The Daily Star that a gazette notification about the transfer will be issued in this regard.
The move comes in backdrop of the 69-year-old Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief repeatedly pleading the High Court expressing "no confidence" in judge Bashudev.

In March this year, Judge Bashudev framed charges against the Opposition leader and eight others in Zia Charitable Trust and Zia Orphanage Trust corruption cases.
Zia had pleaded that the cases be transferred to another judge.

But Rahman said Bashudev's transfer was ordered in line with the routine decisions of the Bangladeshi government.
Anti-Corruption Commission filed the Zia Orphanage graft case in 2009 for embezzlement of over Tk 2.1 crore.
The other case was filed in 2011 for abuse of power in creating the charitable trust.