Articles by "Khaleda Zia"
Dhaka, Oct 6 (PTI) Bangladesh's jailed former prime minister and opposition leader Khaleda Zia was admitted to hospital in Dhaka on Saturday following a court order as her health deteriorated, according to a media report.
Zia, 73, is currently on trial for corruption charges in a makeshift courtroom inside a 19th-century British-built prison where she is the only inmate and in failing health.
The former prime minister had recently complained to the court that she was losing feeling in her hand and in a leg.
In an order on Thursday, the High Court instructed that Zia be admitted to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University.
In response to a writ petition, the court had asked the authorities to form a fresh five-member medical board to examine Zia's health condition and start her treatment.
Zia was admitted to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Saturday afternoon amid tight security, Daily Star reported.
A police car brought the Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief out of the prison. Many BNP activists were at the hospital to see Khaleda, but were blocked from approaching her by police.
Zia was jailed for five years in February after being convicted of corruption, a sentence that triggered clashes between police and thousands of her supporters.
She was granted bail in a corruption case in May but remains in jail while she fights dozens of other violence and graft charges.
Zia was found guilty then of embezzling money intended for an orphanage, a charge she dismissed as politically motivated.
She is appealing against the verdict which bars her from standing in a general election to be held in December.
Dhaka, Jul 2: Bangladesh's Supreme Court today upheld its order that stayed the bail granted by the High Court to former prime minister Khaleda Zia in a 2015 murder case, dealing a blow to the imprisoned leader.
The decision means that the 72-year-old three-time former premier and opposition leader will have to stay in jail for at least another month, even if she secures bail in other cases, bdnews24 reported.
Zia, the chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was jailed for five years in February in connection with the embezzlement of 21 million taka (about USD 250,000) in foreign donations meant for the Zia Orphanage Trust, named after her late husband Ziaur Rahman, a military ruler-turned-politician.
A four-member appellate bench led by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain upheld the stay on the High Court decision granting Zia bail in the Cumilla murder case over the firebombing of a bus in February, 2015, the report said.
The apex court also asked the High Court to hear and dispose of the case over the bail in four weeks.
Eight people were killed in the bomb attack during the BNP-Jamaat alliance's protests. Two separate cases including one for murder were filed over the incident.
After the 2015 incident, a warrant was issued for Zia's arrest after police filed the chargesheet in the two cases.
The Cumilla Chief Judicial Magistrate's court then ordered Zia to be brought for a hearing on March 26. She is yet to be brought to court due to her illness.
Zia's imprisonment has led to a question mark over the BNP's participation in the elections in December as the party said it would not take part in the polls without her.
The BNP-led four-party alliance, with fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami being a crucial partner, boycotted the last elections in 2014, protesting against prime minister Sheikh Hasina's scrapping of the practice of having a caretaker government oversee elections.
The BNP had termed the elections as "farcical". (PTI)
