By Xinhua,
Dhaka : The High Court on Tuesday granted former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia three-month bail in two corruption cases, clearing legal barriers to her freedom on bail from prison, local media reported.
“This removes the last barrier to her release from detention,” her lawyer Rafiqul Islam Miah told the local news agency the bdnews24.com, as earlier Khaleda has secured bails in two other cases out of four corruption cases.
Khaleda, suffering from arthritis and knee problems, is likely to be released on Tuesday or Wednesday, local reports said.
Khaleda and her younger son Arafat Rahman Koko were arrested on Sept. 3 last year amid a purge against crime and corruption by the current caretaker government which took office on Jan. 12 last year following a political crisis over the abortive ninth parliamentary election.
Koko was released on July 17 on health grounds. He is now undergoing treatment for his respiratory complications in Bangkok.
Khaleda’s elder son Tarique Rahman, arrested on March 7 last year on corruption charges and facing 13 graft cases, was released on bail on Sept. 3 this year. Tarique, suffering from spinal cord complications, may go abroad for medical treatment soon, reports said.
Khaleda, who ruled the country twice from 1991 to 1996 and from2001 to 2006, had refused to get released before the release of her two sons.
Khaleda-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), one of two major parties in the country, also demanded that the party would join political dialogue with the government and take part in the ninth parliamentary election scheduled in December only after Khaleda is freed.
Earlier, another ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, also president of another major party Awami League, was paroled on June 11 on her health grounds. She is now in the United States for treatment of her damaged ears and eyes.