{"id":4589,"date":"2014-03-19T19:36:44","date_gmt":"2014-03-20T02:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=4589"},"modified":"2014-03-21T23:07:18","modified_gmt":"2014-03-22T06:07:18","slug":"bangladesh-indicts-former-prime-minister-zia-in-corruption-cases-she-calls-charges-political","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/03\/19\/bangladesh-indicts-former-prime-minister-zia-in-corruption-cases-she-calls-charges-political\/","title":{"rendered":"Bangladesh indicts former Prime Minister Zia in corruption cases; she calls charges political"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/bang1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/bang1.png\" alt=\"bang\" width=\"512\" height=\"266\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4604\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/bang1.png 512w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/bang1-300x155.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>DHAKA, Bangladesh\u2014A former Bangladeshi prime minister and other leading opposition figures were indicted in two related corruption cases Wednesday that could further complicate the country&#8217;s tense political situation.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Basudeb Roy accepted the charges against Khaleda Zia, who was present in the court in the capital, Dhaka.<\/p>\n<p>The charges allege an illegal fund was used to buy land for a charity named after her late husband, former President Ziaur Rahman.<\/p>\n<p>Defence lawyer Khandker Mahbub Uddin said it was not true that Zia had illegally collected more than $1 million in donations for the charity.<\/p>\n<p>Also indicted Wednesday was Zia&#8217;s elder son Tarique Rahman, the heir apparent to take over her Bangladesh Nationalist Party in a deeply rooted political dynasty. Rahman, who faces charges in several other cases, lives in London.<\/p>\n<p>Nine people in total were indicted in the two cases, the others including Zia&#8217;s staff and businessmen.<\/p>\n<p>Zia says the charges are politically motivated, which authorities deny.<\/p>\n<p>Zia&#8217;s political party and her allies boycotted the troubled Jan. 5 elections in which Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina returned to power with an overwhelming majority.<\/p>\n<p>Zia has vowed to restart protests aiming to oust Hasina, who says she would stand tough against any such moves in the South Asian nation, which is a parliamentary democracy.<\/p>\n<p>Zia heads the charity, which she established during her latest premiership, in 2001-2006.<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday&#8217;s indictment came amid chaos as the judge left the court twice after defence lawyers made angry protests while prosecution lawyers also shouted, witnesses said.<\/p>\n<p>Zia filed two petitions to adjourn the case proceedings but the judge rejected them on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DHAKA, Bangladesh\u2014A former Bangladeshi prime minister and other leading opposition figures were indicted in two related corruption cases Wednesday that &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":4604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,17],"tags":[561,1191,9401],"class_list":["post-4589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news-w","tag-as","tag-bangladesh","tag-politics","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}