<div><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment and his wife Zubaida Rahman was handed a three-year jail sentence in a graft case.</b></span><br></div><div><br></div><div>Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on September 26, 2007, filed the case against Tarique Rahman, his wife Zubaida Rahman and mother-in-law Iqbal-Mand Banu for amassing illegal wealth.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Md Asaduzzaman announced the verdict.</div><div><br></div><div>A total of 43 witnesses out of 56 testified in the case. The court on April 13, 2013, framed charges against the two fugitive accused as it scrapped a petition to allow them to appoint lawyers to defend them in absentia.</div><div><br></div><div>The High Court after holding final hearing on the matter, cancelled the plea of Zubaida on April 12, 2017. It had also asked her to appear before the trial court concerned within eight weeks. Zubaida later filed a leave to appeal petition against the High Court order.</div><div><br></div><div>The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on April 13, 2022, scrapped Zubaida's leave to appeal petition and upheld the High Court order.</div><div><br></div><div>On the ther hand, on November 1, 2022, the lower court concerned issued arrest warrants against the couple after accepting the charges pressed against them.</div><div><br></div><div>bnbd24/fas</div>