Online Desk  :   A Dhaka court has acquitted BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia and seven others in connection with the Niko graft case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission in 2007.  Judge Md Rabiul Alam of the Special Judge’s Court-4 of Dhaka pronounced the verdict. Khaleda Zia, who is currently in London for medical treatment, was represented in court by her lawyer Mohammad Ziauddin Zia.

The seven others acquitted are BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman’s close associate Giausuddin Al Mamun, former acting energy secretary Khondaker Shahidul Islam, ex-Dhaka Club president Selim Bhuiyan, former senior assistant secretary CM Yusuf Hussain, ex-principal secretary Kamal Uddin Siddiqui, former general manager of Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company Limited (BAPEX) Mir Moynul Haque, and ex-president of Niko Resources (Bangladesh) Limited Kashem Sharif.

Of them, Kamal, Moynul, and Kashem are absconding, while the remaining four were present during the judgment. The ACC had filed the case in 2007, and on May 5, 2008, it pressed charges against Khaleda Zia and 10 others. Following the conclusion of the defence hearing and arguments, the court set February 19 as the date for the verdict.