The Bangladesh High Court on Sunday ordered former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia to be freed on bail and halted further prosecution of her on corruption charges. It was not clear whether Khaleda would be freed immediately. The prosecutorÂ’s office said it would appeal against the ruling and try to block her release from detention. Security forces arrested Khaleda and her son Arafat Rahman early this month for awarding a cargo handling contract to a firm in 2003 that her son favoured, overruling a state committeeÂ’s recommendation.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) lodged the charges against Khaleda, her son and 11 other people a day before she was detained on Sept 3. Since then, she has been held at a house in the parliament compound. “The court has granted bail to the former prime minister and halted the proceeding of the case under emergency power rules,” Khaleda’s lawyer Rafiqul Huq told reporters.
Huq said: “The court has accepted our point that an offence committed before imposition of state of emergency cannot be tried under emergency power rules.” The court urged the interim government and the ACC to explain within six weeks why bringing the case under emergency power rules should not be declared unlawful.