Haven’t received Khaleda’s parole appeal: Home Minister

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Sunday said the government is yet to receive any appeal for the release of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on parole.

"I haven't received any appeal [from BNP]. Moreover, it's a matter of the court," he said after attending a branch opening ceremony of Sydney International School in Gulshan.

Meanwhile, Khaleda's lawyer Advocate Zainul Abedin told UNB that they will again file a bail petition this week seeking the BNP chief's release.

Pointing at section 401(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, he said the government can suspend jail term of such convicts under special consideration.

The section says: "When any person has been sentenced to punishment for an offence, the government may at any time without conditions or upon any conditions which the person sentenced excepts, suspend the execution of his sentence or remit the whole or any part of the punishment to which he has been sentenced."

Abedin said the government will initiate the process.

BNP leaders and activists on Saturday demonstrated in front of the party's Nayapaltan central office demanding its chairperson's release.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday said the government urgently needs to free Khaleda Zia on humanitarian ground instead of doing politics over the issue.

Khaleda has been in jail since she was convicted in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on February 8, 2018. She was found guilty in another corruption case later the same year, though her party claims both cases are politically motivated.