Staff Correspondent:
A Dhaka court on Sunday fixed February 26 to hold a hearing on charge framing in the Niko graft case against BNP chief Begum Khaleda Zia.
Judge Sheikh Hafizur Rahman passed the order in a temporary courtroom of the Dhaka Special Judge’s Court-9 at Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj.
Appearing on behalf of Khaleda Zia, lawyer AJ Mohammad Ali sought exemption from filing charges against her.
As the hearing did not end on Sunday, the court re-fixed the date.
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed the case against five including Begum Khaleda Zia at Tejgaon police station on December 9, 2007 for abusing power in signing a deal with Canadian company Niko for exploring and extracting gas.
The ACC on May 5, 2008 pressed charges against 11 people including Khaleda Zia. The ACC accused them of causing a loss of more than Tk13,000 crore to the state exchequer with that deal.
The other accused in the case are AKM Mosharraf Hossain, former state minister for energy, Kamal Uddin Siddique, former principal secretary to prime minister, Khandaker Shahidul Islam, former acting energy secretary, CM Yousuf Hossain, former senior assistant secretary of the Energy and Mineral Resources Department, Meer Moynul Haque, former senior general manager of Bapex, Shafiur Rahman, former secretary of Bapex, Giasuddin Al Mamun, managing director of One Group, Selim Bhuiyan, chairman and managing director of International Travel Corporation, and Kashem Sharif, vice president (South Asia) of Niko Resources Bangladesh Ltd.

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