Family to apply for extension of Khaleda’s suspended prison sentence

The family of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will file a plea with the government seeking an extension of her suspended prison sentence.

The government freed her following the family’s petition on Mar 25 for six months amid the coronavirus pandemic on condition of receiving treatment at home and not travelling abroad.

The 75-year-old former prime minister had been receiving treatment in hospital under the supervision of the prison authorities. She had served 25 months out of 17 years of prison sentences in two graft cases involving Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust.

“Madam [Khaleda] has not recovered yet. She is in the same condition as before. So extending her suspended prison sentence is urgently necessary,” BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told bdnews24.com on Saturday. 

The family will file the petition at an appropriate time, he added. Khaleda’s suspended sentence will end on Sep 24.

Her doctors visit her at her Gulshan home in Dhaka. They are following up on the treatment she had received in jail. Mirza Fakhrul said the doctors also consult Zubaida Rahman, a doctor and wife of Khaleda’s son Tarique Rahman, who are in London.

The BNP chief has been suffering from arthritis, diabetes, eye problems and other old-age complications.

Besides Mirza Fakhrul, senior BNP leaders met her at her home on Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha.