Police clash with Khaleda Zia’s supporters outside court after judge convicts her of corruption

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A judge in Bangladesh has convicted the opposition leader Khaleda Zia of corruption and sentenced her to five years in jail as police clashed with thousands of her supporters outside the court.

The court found the former prime minister guilty of embezzling money meant for an orphanage, a charge she had consistently dismissed as politically motivated.

Zia, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP), is expected to appeal against the verdict, but it may affect her ability to stand in a general election slated for December.

She was immediately taken to a special jail in the old part of the city where she must remain until her lawyers file an appeal.

“This is a false and staged case. No way will we accept this verdict,” the BNP secretary general, Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, said after the hearing.

Zia’s lawyer, Khandkar Mahbub Hossain, said the ruling was “political vengeance” and would be overturned by a higher court.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Khaleda Zia outside the court in Dhaka. Photograph: Abir Abdullah/EPA

Violence erupted in major cities across Bangladesh at news of the guilty verdict, with BNP supporters clashing with police and activists from the ruling party.

Police fired rubber bullets at demonstrators in the north-eastern city of Sylhet, a spokesman, Abdul Wahab, said. At least four people were injured in the clashes, he added.

Police said they had arrested at least seven BNP officials in the port city of Chittagong, including the local head of the party, after opposition supporters scuffled with police.

Before the hearing in Dhaka police fired teargas at thousands of opposition activists who defied heavy security to escort the car taking Zia to the magistrates court.

The private television station Somoy said at least five police officers had been injured and two motorcycles torched during clashes that broke out several miles from the court.

Authorities have for days been on high alert for protests in the tense city, where political demonstrations by Zia’s centre-right BNP and its Islamist allies in 2014 and 2015 left nearly 200 people dead.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Police charge towards protesters in Dhaka. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

About 3,500 opposition activists and officials were arrested in a sweep by security forces before the verdict, according to the BNP spokesman Rizvi Ahmed.

A senior officer said more than 5,000 police had been deployed in Dhaka.

Zia, 72, is a former ally turned arch-foe of Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina. Her party boycotted 2014 polls in which Hasina was re-elected but is expected to contest the upcoming general election.

Zia, who entered politics in the mid-1980s after her military dictator husband was assassinated in an abortive coup, also faces dozens of separate charges related to violence and corruption. She has repeatedly said the charges against her were aimed at excluding her and her family from politics.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Police carry away a protester. Photograph: Abir Abdullah/EPA

Her son Rahman lives in exile in London and was convicted of money laundering in 2016. Last month prosecutors sought the death penalty over his alleged role in a deadly 2004 grenade attack that injured Hasina.

Zia and her son were detained by the army-backed government in 2007 and spent a year and a half in detention pending trials for alleged corruption.

“This is an attempt to use the court against me, in an effort to sideline me from politics and elections and to isolate me from the people,” she told a packed news conference on Wednesday.

Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged the government to stop what it called “arbitrary arrests and detentions”.

“The Bangladesh government’s claims to be open and democratic ring hollow as it cracks down on political dissent,” said the group’s Asia director, Brad Adams. “The government has a responsibility to prevent and minimise violence, but it needs to do so in a way that respects basic rights, not flouts them.”