The High Court on Wednesday admitted an appeal filed by Zubaida Rahman, wife of Bangladesh Nationalist Party acting chairman Tarique Rahman, challenging her three-year prison sentence in a corruption case.
The sentence was handed down in 2023 in her absence allegedly for abetting her husband in amassing illegal wealth.
A bench of Justice Md Khasruzzaman granted Zubaida interim bail until the disposal of her appeal.
The court also directed the trial court concerned to send the case records to the High Court for further proceedings.
The order came a day after the same bench allowed Zubaida鈥檚 plea seeking pardon for making a 587-day delay in filing the appeal.
As per law, Zubaida was required to file the appeal within 30 days of the trial court鈥檚 2023 verdict.
According to pro-BNP lawyers, the conviction in聽the case filed in 2007 is the only enforceable sentence currently standing against Tarique Rahman.
They believe that the High Court鈥檚 admitting Zubaida鈥� appeal for hearing and granting her bail may pave the way for Tarique to ultimately seek exoneration, as her appeal challenged the foundation of the original conviction that implicated both.
Tarique, who faced 84 criminal cases and was sentenced to imprisonment in at least five cases, now had only the wealth statement case left to resolve.
His lawyer Kayser Kamal claimed that the cases against his client were fabricated and politically motivated.
The wealth statement case, filed during the military-backed interim government in 2007, accused Tarique of concealing wealth worth Tk 2.16 crore in his statement to the Anti-Corruption Commission and amassing Tk 2.74 crore beyond his known sources of income. Zubaida was accused of abetting her husband in acquiring the wealth.
SM Shajahan, another lawyer for Zubaida, informed the court that Zubaida was compelled to leave the country during the military-backed caretaker government in 2008 and that she was tried and the verdict was delivered in her absence.
Zubaida accompanied BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia on May 6 while returning to Bangladesh from London after receiving advanced medical treatment there.
Tarique has been staying in the United Kingdom since he went there on September 11, 2008 for treatment.
He was arrested in an anti-corruption crackdown in March 2007 and was released on bail on September 3, 2008.
Prior to Zubaida鈥檚 return, the government, through an executive order, suspended her sentence for one year on the condition that she would surrender and file an appeal against the 2023 verdict.
The case was filed on September 26, 2007 by the then Anti-Corruption Commission deputy director Mohammad Zahirul Huda with Kafrul police station in Dhaka.
