On Wednesday, the Bangladesh High Court cleared former Prime Minister and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia of charges in a corruption case. She had been sentenced to seven years in prison by a lower court, according to media reports.

In the 2018 Zia Charitable Trust corruption case, Zia, then 79, was found guilty by a Dhaka court. Under the Awami League government of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, she was also fined Tk 1 million and given a seven-year prison sentence. A court, led by Justices AKM Asaduzzaman and Syed Enayet Hossain, overturned the conviction of Zia after she appealed the decision, according to bdnews24.com. Two other people involved in the case were also acquitted.

The Anti-Corruption Commission had filed the case in 2011, accusing Zia and three others of using their power to raise funds for the Zia Orphanage Trust from unknown sources, as reported by the Daily Star. Zia was sent to the Old Dhaka Central Jail on February 8, 2018, after a special court sentenced her to five years in prison for the corruption case related to the trust. Her sentence was increased to ten years by the high court on October 30, 2018.

Zia was convicted in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the government temporarily released her from jail after she had served 776 days. This decision was made through an executive order on March 25, 2020, with conditions that she stay in her house in Gulshan and not leave the country. On August 6, following a change in government in Dhaka, Zia was completely released by a decision from Bangladesh’s President, Mohammed Shahabuddin.