Bangladeshi ex-PM Khaleda to appear before court Monday

DHAKA, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) — Bangladeshi ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia will appear before a court in capital Dhaka on Monday in a case filed by the country’s anti-graft body.
Khaleda Zia will appear before the Special Judge’s Court-9 at about 11:30 a.m. (local time) on Monday and seek bail in the graft case filled for allegedly awarding a contract to a foreign firm causing huge loss to the exchequer, Sanaullah Miah, a counsel for the opposition leader, told journalists Sunday.
Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission filed the Niko graft case in 2007 after the BNP chief was arrested by the then military-backed caretaker government.
A total of 11 people, including Khaleda Zia, former Bangladeshi Law Minister Moudud Ahmed and former State Minister for Energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain, were charged on May 5, 2008 for allegedly causing a loss of 137 billion taka (some 1.76 billion U.S. dollars) to the state exchequer by awarding gas exploration job to a Canadian company, Niko Resources.
Zia had earlier said political vendettas were to blame for the cases against her and her sons.  Enditem