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Bangladesh High Court grants ex-PM Begum Khalida Zia bail
The Bangladesh High Court granted bail to detained former prime minister Khalida Zia on Tuesday, clearing the way for her release after 12 months behind bars on corruption charges.
- Reuters
- Published: 10:55 September 9, 2008
Dhaka: The Bangladesh High Court granted bail to detained former prime minister Khalida Zia on Tuesday, clearing the way for her release after 12 months behind bars on corruption charges.
The court bailed her on the remaining two of four charges brought after her arrest in September 2007 by the army-backed interim government.
Khalida denied any wrongdoing while in power. Her lawyers said she would leave jail very soon.
"Now no further obstacle remains on her way to freedom," said attorney Rafiqul Haque. Officials said it might take one or two days more to complete the formalities for her release.
Khalida's arch rival and co-detainee, former prime minister Shaikh Hasina, was granted parole in June to travel to the United States for treatment of ear and eye complaints.
Medical help
Khalida herself, though suffering from an arthritic knee condition, had told the court hearing her case she would not go abroad for medical help, preferring treatment in Bangladesh.
Last week the High Court bailed Tareque Rahman, Khalida's son and apparent political heir, on six corruption charges. That decision cleared the way for Tareque, senior joint secretary-general of her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), to go abroad for treatment of what his doctors say is a broken back bone.
The ex-premiers, Tareque and nearly 170 other key politicians, mostly from the BNP and Hasina's Awami League, were detained in a huge anti-corruption drive after the army-backed interim administration took charge in January 2007 following months of political violence.
Over the past two months, though, more than 50 have been freed on bail while many others have also sought bail, police and prison officials said.
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