The Bangladesh Supreme Court on Thursday stalled a High Court judgement which granted bail to detained former prime minister Khaleda Zia in the Gatco corruption case
DHAKA: The Bangladesh Supreme Court on Thursday stalled a High Court judgement which granted bail to detained former prime minister Khaleda Zia in the Gatco corruption case and ordered that the case against her should continue.
A full-bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) refused bail for Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief Zia and froze the High Court's order staying the proceedings in the Gatco corruption case.
The HC had earlier also ordered the government to explain in six weeks why bringing the case under the emergency power rules shall not be declared illegal.
The powerful Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on September 2 filed cases against Zia, her younger son Arafat Rahman Koko and 11 other people for allegedly resorting to corruption in awarding Gatco the contract for container management at inland container depots in Dhaka and Chittagong.
It was alleged that the selection incurred a loss of over Tk 1,000 crore to the government exchequer.
Earlier on Sunday the HC granted bail to the former prime minister. The ACC appealed against the decision following which the chamber judge of the Supreme Court on Tuesday referred the case to the full-bench hearing of the Appellate Division, the Daily Star newspaper reported.
"The Supreme Court refused bail to Khaleda Zia and ruled that the proceedings of the graft case could go on," Deputy Attorney General Abdur Rouf said.
"She will stay in custody and the case will continue against her," Rouf was quoted as saying in the media.
Zia, Bangladesh's most recent democratically-elected prime minister, was arrested in early September along with her younger son.
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