• Wion
  • /South Asia
  • /Khaleda Zia is 'physically, psychologically alright, is under isolation', says official

Khaleda Zia is 'physically, psychologically alright, is under isolation', says official

Khaleda Zia is 'physically, psychologically alright, is under isolation', says official

BNP leader Khaleda Zia

Story highlights

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister and opposition leader Khaleda Zia was jailed for five years for corruption on Thursday as thousands of supporters took to the streets of the capital to protest her innocence

Former Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia, sentenced to five years imprisonment in a graft case, spent her night as a lone inmate of a renovated facility of the old Dhaka's abandoned central jail, where an official said, she was "physically and psychologically alright".

Today, authorities allowed Zia's younger businessman brother and four other relatives to meet theleader.

The 72-year-old three-time former prime minister was sentenced yesterday by the Dhaka's Special Court in connection with the embezzlement of 21 million taka (about USD 250,000) in foreign donations meant for the Zia

Add WION as a Preferred Source

The chief of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was sent to a renovated facility of the old Dhaka's abandoned central prison.

"She is physically and psychologically alright," a prison official told a private TV channel preferring anonymity.

But a senior BNP leader said, "She is in isolation", and alleged that her conviction was "part of a government blueprint to establish one-party rule".

She plans to appeal against her conviction, lawyers said, and will mostly likely be freed on bail pending that process.

"She was given a shorter term considering her health and social status," Judge Mohammad Akhteruzzaman saide as he passed sentence in a packed courtroom.

Meanwhile, hundreds of BNP leaders and activists today staged protests in the capital and other major cities in protest at the verdict.

They also had a scuffle with police but no incident of major violence was reported.Police fired rubber bullets at demonstrators in the northeastern city of Sylhet. At least four people have been injured in the clashes.

Bangladesh's main opposition party, the BNP, has named the 'fugitive' and convicted eldest son of Khaleda Zia as its acting chief, a day after the former prime minister was sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment in a graft case.