Khaleda Zia to surrender in court on Monday

Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister and Opposition BNP chief Khaleda Zia is set to surrender before a trial court to face corruption charges over contracting a gas field to a Canadian company in exchange for kickbacks during her tenure as Premier.

“She will appear before the special judge’s court-9 tomorrow (Monday) at 11:30 am in line with the Supreme Court directives,” Ms Zia’s counsel Mahbubuddin Khokon said.

The high court in June this year rejected the ex-Premier’s plea seeking to quash a graft charge over contracting out a gas field to Canada’s NIKO as the lower court trials were underway involving the case, withdrawing a temporary ban.

The NIKO case was filed during the past military-backed interim government in 2007 after the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) accused the ex-Premier and 10 others of causing a loss of nearly 13,777 crore Taka ($1.78 billion) by reaching a non-transparent deal with the Canadian company.

Ms Zia is also being tried in two other graft cases involving two charities named after her husband slain Bangladeshi military ruler and Bangladeshi Nationalist Party (BNP) founder Ziaur Rahman.

Ms Zia was Premier from 2001 to 2006, and earlier from 1991 to 1996.