The High Court has allowed Zubaida Rahman, wife of BNP’s acting chairperson Tarique Rahman, to appeal against her three-year prison sentence in a corruption case filed more than one and a half decades ago.
Justice Md Khosruzzaman on Monday accepted a petition submitted by Zubaida, who returned to Bangladesh last week after spending 17 years in London, seeking condonation of a 587-day delay in filing the appeal.
Speaking to journalists, Zubaida’s counsel Barrister Kaiser Kamal said she will now proceed with submitting a formal appeal against the conviction in the case brought by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) during the military-backed caretaker government.
The case was originally filed on 26 September 2007 by ACC Deputy Director Mohammad Zahirul Huda at Kafrul Police Station in Dhaka. It named Tarique Rahman, Zubaida Rahman, and her mother Syeda Iqbal Mand Banu as the accused.
The charges centred on the alleged illegal accumulation of wealth and the concealment of information from the ACC regarding their assets.
On 2 August 2023, Judge Md Asaduzzaman of the Dhaka Senior Special Judge’s Court sentenced Tarique to nine years in prison and Zubaida to three years.
The verdict formed part of a broader series of graft cases initiated during the 2007–2008 caretaker government, which launched a widespread anti-corruption drive targeting high-profile political figures.
Despite the conviction, the government later suspended Zubaida’s sentence through a notification issued on 29 September 2023. The order suspended her sentence for one year on the condition that she surrender before the court and file an appeal.