TIL Desk/World/Dhaka/ Bangladesh’s leader of opposition and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia will not be able to contest the upcoming general elections after she was sentenced to a total of 17 years in prison in two separate graft cases, Attorney-General Mahbubey Alam said on Tuesday.
“Since she is now a convict, according to the existing law of our country one cannot participate in elections unless the punishment is changed and she is acquitted,” Alam told reporters at his office.
The Bangladesh High Court on Tuesday doubled Khaleda’s jail sentence to 10 years from the five-year term that was announced in February in a corruption case involving the embezzlement of $200,000 meant for the Zia Orphanage Trust.
Khaleda’s son Tarique Rahman and four others were sentenced for 10 years at that time. “The revision that the Anti-Corruption Commission filed for increasing her punishment has been granted and the punishment of Begum Khaleda Zia was increased to 10 years from five years,” the Attorney-General said on Tuesday.
