Dhaka: With authorities in Bangladesh failing to submit the medical report of jailed former prime minister Khaleda Zia, the Supreme Court deferred the hearing of her bail application, according to media reports. The top court fixed December 12 as the next date of hearing in the Zia Charitable Trust case, the Dhaka Tribune reported.
Zia, 73, was sentenced to seven years in jail along with three others in October in the case for abusing their power and raising funds for the trust from unknown sources. The former prime minister is already serving a jail term since February after being convicted in another case related to embezzlement of funds of an orphanage named after her husband and former president Ziaur Rahman.
The full bench of the appellate division, headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, fixed the next date of hearing as Zia's medical report was not submitted before it. Earlier on November 28, the court had asked the medical board formed at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) for her treatment to submit the report. Zia, the chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, has been receiving treatment at the BSMMU since April.
“The court has now asked to submit the medical report on December 11. It will hold the bail hearing on December 12,” Zia's lawyer A K M Eshanur Rahman was quoted as saying in the report. According to a report, at the start of the proceedings in the court, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam informed that BSMMU had requested more time to prepare Zia's medical report. 'They still have to run a few more tests on Khaleda for which they need time,' he said.
