A high court here has ordered Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Chief Khaleda Zia to surrender before a lower court within two months to face trial in connection with the Gatco graft case.
According to the Daily Star, the high court came up with the verdict after rejecting Khaleda's two writ petitions that challenged the legality of filing the case and her trial in it.
Khaleda's counsel Khandker Mahbub Hossain said that the BNP chief would challenge the verdict before the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
The high court had earlier rejected Khaleda's three other petitions, clearing the way for her trial in Zia Orphanage Trust, Zia Charitable Trust and Niko graft cases in the lower courts.
The case accused Khaleda, her late younger son Arafat Rahman Koko, Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami and 10 others of awarding a contract to Global Agro Trade (Pvt) Company Ltd (Gatco) for container management at inland depots in Dhaka and Chittagong.
The graft allegedly cost the state exchequer over Taka 1,000 crore.
