Former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia appealed to a court yesterday for withdrawal of the arrest warrant issued against her in two graft cases.
The Bangladesh National Party (BNP) chairperson will not be attending the hearing scheduled for today, her lawyer Sanaullah Miah said after submitting the plea to the Dhaka’s Third Special Judge Abu Ahmed Jamadar yesterday, bdnews24.com reported.
Judge Jamadar had cancelled Zia’s bail and those of two others on February 25 following their failure to appear at successive hearings in the corruption cases involving the misappropriation of funds from the Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust.
“BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia will not be going to court tomorrow (Wednesday) because there is no security,” Miah said.
“We have pleaded against the arrest warrant. We are also waiting for the pleas we filed against these cases at High Court,” he added.
BNP sources said Zia is unwilling to leave her Gulshan office now as she has information that the government will either arrest her in the two cases or will not allow her entering her office once she leaves it.
She has been staying at her office since January 5 after calling for an indefinite transport blockade, to pressure the government to call fresh elections under a non-partisan regime.
