Bangladesh Turns Down Khaleda Zia’s Request to Fly Abroad for Treatment

Bangladesh on Sunday rejected a petition by jailed former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to go abroad on a medical visit, saying “there is no judicial provision that permits a jailed convict to go abroad for treatment”. The 76-year-old chief of main Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), who is serving a 17-year jail term on charges of embezzling foreign donations, has been temporarily released from prison amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Zia contracted the virus in early April. As per the doctors, she has now tested negative for the infection and is recovering at a hospital in Dhaka.

“There is no judicial provision that permits a jailed convict to go abroad for treatment,” Home Minister Asad uz Zaman Khan told a news briefing on Sunday, hours after the Law Ministry turned down a petition on her behalf seeking permission to fly abroad for further treatment.

Officials said the Law Ministry reviewed the legal scope and barriers for Zia’s visit abroad and sent its opinion to the minister. The government officially turned down the application after Zia’s doctors said she had tested negative for the virus.

“The third phase test has found her COVID-19 negative but she is now in hospital for post COVID-19 treatments,” said Zia’s doctor and BNP vice chairman AZM Zahid Hossain. Doctors close to the family said uncontrolled diabetes and arthritis had complicated the former prime minister’s treatment.

“It is a matter of hope that she is showing a sign of progress, though her health condition requires her to stay in CCU (critical care unit) of the hospital,” said BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

“You know she is suffering from different ailments many of which aggravated due to her imprisonment and age,” he added.