Emergency authorities in Bangladesh released former prime minister Khaleda Zia yesterday as part of efforts to restore democracy in the South Asian country by the end of the year.
Zia, 63, walked out of jail after spending just over a year locked up over alleged corruption dating back to her two stints as prime minister from 1991-1996 and 2001-2006, her lawyer said.
Her release on bail comes as the army-backed government seeks to relinquish power and hold elections in late December.
PHOTO: AP
The participation of Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is seen as crucial for the success of the polls, which will bring an end to nearly two years of emergency rule.
Lawyer Ahmed Azam Khan said Zia was allowed to leave the prison where she had been held since Sept. 3 last year at about 11:30am.
“She has been released from the jail,” Khan said.
He said Zia had gone directly to the grave of her husband, slain president Ziaur Rahman, before heading to the hospital where her ailing son Tareque Rahman — also accused of graft and bailed last week — is being treated.
Rahman has been issued a British visa and could fly to London for treatment for a spinal injury as early as yesterday evening, another lawyer Nadir Uddin Amir said.
Thousands of supporters gathered outside the prison, the cemetery and hospital awaiting Zia’s arrival, police said.
The government also wants Zia to travel abroad for medical treatment for her arthritic knee but she does not want to leave.
Although the army-backed government wants Bangladesh’s major parties to play a role in the polls, observers say it clearly wants to push Zia out and prevent the two-time prime minister from returning to office.
Zia and her arch-rival, fellow ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed of the Awami League party, are both blamed for rampant corruption and Bangladesh’s political meltdown that prompted the declaration of a state of emergency in January last year.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home
TIGHTENING: Zhu Hengpeng, who worked for an influential think tank, has reportedly not been seen in public since making disparaging remarks on WeChat A leading Chinese economist at a government think tank has reportedly disappeared after being disciplined for criticizing Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in a private chat group. Zhu Hengpeng (朱恆鵬), 55, is believed to have made disparaging remarks about China’s economy, and potentially about the Chinese leader specifically, in a private WeChat group. Zhu was subsequently detained in April and put under investigation, the Wall Street Journal reported. Zhu worked for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) for more than 20 years, most recently as the Institute of Economics deputy director and director of the Public Policy Research Center. He
CHINESE ICBM: The missile landed near the EEZ of French Polynesia, much to the surprise and concern of the president, who sent a letter of protest to Beijing Fijian President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere called for “respect for our region” and a stop to missile tests in the Pacific Ocean, after China launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). In a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Katonivere recalled the Pacific Ocean’s history as a nuclear weapons testing ground, and noted Wednesday’s rare launch by China of an ICBM. “There was a unilateral test firing of a ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean. We urge respect for our region and call for cessation of such action,” he said. The ICBM, carrying a dummy warhead, was launched by the