The government has decided to extend the suspension of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's jail sentence, handed down in two corruption cases, by six more months on health grounds.
The conditions of the suspension of the jail sentence would remain unchanged, Law Minister Anisul Huq told journalists on Wednesday afternoon.
The conditions are that she will take treatment from home in Dhaka and will not go abroad during this period.
The minister said that Khaleda Zia’s family had pleaded for the suspension in a letter. The Home Ministry sought the Law Ministry’s opinion on it.
“We’ve said that the suspension can be extended for another six months,” Anisul Huq said.
The Home Ministry will issue an order in this regard after completing some formalities.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud, meanwhile, hoped that Khaleda Zia and her party would remember the generosity that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had shown to her.
Terming Sheikh Hasina a generous person, he said that Bangabandhu’s daughter had repeatedly given her the opportunity to stay home by suspending her jail sentence, reports BSS.
The government earlier suspended the sentence in phases, the last time being August 27 last year.
On February 8, 2018, Khaleda was sent to the Old Dhaka Central Jail after a subordinate court sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case. The High Court later doubled her jail term.
The former prime minister was found guilty in another corruption case the same year. Her party claims both cases are politically motivated.
Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government freed Khaleda Zia from jail for six months through an executive order, suspending her sentences on March 25, 2020 under two conditions – she would take treatment from home in Dhaka and would not go abroad during this period.
She was released from the prison cell of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) the same day, and she has been staying at her Gulshan house since then. She was taken to Evercare Hospital several times due to Covid and other health complications.
During this time, she has not appeared in any court proceedings in nearly two dozen cases on health grounds.
On December 8 last year, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that the government had shown great generosity to Khaleda Zia by allowing her to stay at home and receive treatment, though Khaleda's intention was always to hurt the Bangabandhu family.
Khaleda’s treatment abroad
Even though the government suspended the jail sentence, it has maintained that Khaleda Zia cannot be taken abroad for advanced treatment as demanded by her family and her party.
Anisul Huq earlier said the government had released the BNP chief after suspending her jail sentence as per Section 401 (1) of the Criminal Code of Procedure (CrPC).
Section 401(1) of the CrPC says: "When any person has been sentenced to punishment for an offence, the government may at any time without conditions or upon any conditions which the person sentenced accepts, suspend the execution of his/her sentence or remit the whole or any part of the punishment to which he/she has been sentenced."
On August 28, 2021, the law minister said that Khaleda Zia would have to return to jail if she wanted to seek permission to go abroad for treatment.