Ahead of the January 7 elections, 31 central leaders of the BNP were sentenced by the court, including three vice presidents, an adviser to the chairman and two joint general secretaries. Of these, 26 vice presidents Major (retired) Hafizuddin Ahmed, Air Vice Marshal (retired) Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Mohammad Shahjahan and joint general secretary Syed Moazzam are currently on bail. The remaining five central leaders of the party are still in jail.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, BNP's Assistant Secretary for Legal Affairs Syed Zainul Abedin said that senior party leaders were sentenced to jail two to three months before the 12th parliamentary election. After not getting justice in the lower courts, the convicted leaders approached the High Court. After appeal, many of them have been granted bail.
Former Jubo Dal president Saiful Islam was sentenced to a total of 17 years in jail in seven separate cases from November 20 to December 31 last year. He has appealed against the verdict given by the lower court.