The court verdict convicting BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia Thursday has only confirmed the government ministers' statements that she would be jailed, said the BNP's alliance partner Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.
In its reaction to the judgement in the graft case, Jamaat observed that the former prime minister, Khaleda Zia, was deprived of justice.
"It's nothing but [a result of] vengeance and conspiracy of the government," Jamaat's acting ameer, former member of parliament Mujibur Rahman observed in the statement.
Jamaat felt Khaleda Zia should have been acquitted from the charges in the "so-called Zia Orphanage Trust graft case' in which she has been sentenced to suffer five years in jail.
"The people have been disappointed at this judgement... This will remain a black chapter in the country's history," read the statement signed by M Alam of Jamaat's central publicity wing.
"The government is nakedly using the judiciary to attain political gains, and as a result, the people will lose their confidence in the court," Jamaat said.
The party expressed its views that the country will plunge into "serious crisis" if the people's confidence in the court is lost.
Jamaat, a major component of the BNP-led 20-party alliance, said Khaleda Zia, also the alliance leader, has been convicted as part of a government design to keep politicians of major opposition parties out of electoral contest.
The Jamaat leader, however, expressed confidence that such autocratic mindset will lead to downfall of the regime.
"Using the government machinery and creating a crisis, the government wants to prolong its stay in power, but the people will not allow it to execute its evil design," he said in the statement.