Dhaka: BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will appear before a special court here on Thursday in the Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust graft cases.

“BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will go to the court on Thursday showing respect to law,” her counsel Sanaullah Mia told UNB on Wednesday.

The BNP chief will start her journey around 9am from her Gulshan residence for the special court, said her media wing member Sayrul Kabir Khan.

Earlier on September 3, Khaleda Zia skipped hearing in the graft cases against her on the ground of illness.

The Special Judge’s Court-3, set up on the playground of Govt Alia Madrasah in the capital’s Bakshibazar, on the day recorded deposition of three more witnesses in her absence and adjourned till September 10 the next hearing on the two graft cases.

On August 8, 2011, the ACC 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.

ACC deputy director Harunur Rashid, also an investigation officer of the case, pressed charges against the accused on January 16, 2012.

Besides, the ACC filed the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case on July 3, 2008 with Ramna Police Station accusing Khaleda Zia, her eldest son

On August 5, 2010, Harunur Rashid submitted a charge- sheet to the court in the case against six people, including BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia.