BNP on Friday briefed foreign diplomats stationed in Dhaka about the country’s overall situation centring a special court’s verdict to be delivered on February 8 in graft case of its chairperson Khaleda Zia.

A group of BNP leaders, led by its secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, apprised the diplomats of the party’s observations about the trial proceedings of the case and some other issues relating to the possible verdict, reports the UNB.

Diplomats from the UN and around 30 countries, including the UK, Germany, Australia, Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Switzerland, India, Morocco Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Thailand, France, Turkey, Kuwait, Vatican City and Vietnam, attended the nearly one-and-a-half-hour meeting that began around 4:15pm at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office.

Earlier on Thursday, the Special Court-5 in Dhaka fixed February 8 to deliver verdict in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case against Khaleda and five others.

On Aug 8, 2011, the commission filed the Zia Charitable Trust graft case with Tejgaon Police Station accusing four people, including Khaleda Zia, of abusing power in raising funds for the trust from unknown sources. Khaleda will be disqualified for the next general election if she is convicted in the case.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Fakhrul said they exchanged views with the diplomats about the country’s latest political situation. ‘It was like a routine briefing as we did in the past.’ 

However, some BNP leaders, who were present at the meeting, said they presented a total political and human rights situation of the country and the government’s repressive acts before the foreign envoys.

They also told the diplomats that the government implicated their chairperson in the graft case with false documents though she has no involvement in any type of irregularities only to take political revenge on her.

They also told the envoys that the date for delivering verdict in the case has been set hurriedly ahead of the next general election.

The BNP leaders feared that the government may try to influence the court to unlawfully convict her to make her disqualified for the next polls.

They also provided the diplomats with some documents and papers and papers cuttings relating to Prime Minister and some ministers’ comments on the under trial case and its possible verdict.

Apart from Fakhrul, BNP standing committee members Moudud Ahmed, Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, vice chairman Enam Ahmed Chowdhury, chairperson’s advisers Reaz Rahman, Sabihuddin Ahmed, Supreme Court Bar Association president Adv Joynal Abedin, former attorney general AG Mohammed Ali, party special secretary Dr Asaduzzaman Ripon, international affairs assistant secretary  Fahima Nasrin Munni and Rumin Farhan were present.