By IANS
Dhaka : Former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s husband and nuclear scientist Wazed Miah has been hospitalised here with severe breathing problems.
Wazed Miah was hospitalised Sunday, when his wife and other members of the family were sent for trial in a graft case.
He has been suffering from bronchopneumonia and other complications, his physician Sohrabuzzaman said. His condition is serious but not critical, Sohrabuzzaman was quoted as saying in The Daily Star Monday.
Wazed Miah was taken seriously ill on the day Hasina was sent to jail July 16 last year and took three months to recover. The newspaper said he had been suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure and psychiatric problems for a long time and even underwent a bypass surgery in 1997.
A Dhaka court Sunday framed charges against Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana and cousin Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim in a 29 million takas ($490,000) extortion case.
It also decided that the trial of the case filed by businessman Azam J. Chowdhury would begin Thursday. Hasina, also president of the Awami League (AL), protested her innocence and termed the case “false and motivated”.
Addressing Judge Azizul Huq of Dhaka Metropolitan Session Judge’s Court, she said she knew he was helpless as he had to “follow dictates from some special places”.
“I know even if you move to ensure justice, you would be in trouble the following day,” she told the court adding, “I know I won’t get justice here and so I look to Allah and the people of this country for justice.”
While Hasina and Selim are in jail, sister Rehana, who lives in London, was indicted in absentia.
This is the first time charges have been framed against a former prime minister.
Hasina’s political rival and Bangladesh’s last elected prime minister Khaleda Zia and both her sons are also facing charges of corruption in jail.