DHAKA (AFP) – Bangladesh yesterday blocked ailing key opposition leader and two-time former premier Khaleda Zia from travelling abroad for life-saving medical treatment, an official and supporters said.
Legal chief for Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Kayser Kamal slammed the government’s decision to bar the wheelchair-bound 78-year-old from leaving – due to the terms of her effective house arrest – as an act of “political vengeance”.
Bangladesh is gearing up for general elections due before the end of January, and several Western governments and rights groups have expressed concern over the political climate in a country where the ruling party dominates the legislature and runs it virtually as a rubber stamp.
In 2008, Zia was sentenced to 17 years in prison for graft, and jailed for two years before being released under house arrest.
