'Tell Supreme Court I'm critically ill'
Khaleda to her lawyers
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday asked her lawyers to bring the matter of her “serious illnesses” to the notice of the Supreme Court during the hearing on two appeals against the High Court bail order in the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case on Tuesday.
“Madam told us, 'Tell the Supreme Court I'm critically ill'. Her health is deteriorating gradually as she is staying in a damp environment in the jail,” Khaleda's lawyer Abdur Rezzak Khan told journalists after meeting her in the old Dhaka Central Jail on Nazimuddin Road.
The former attorney general along with senior Supreme Court lawyers Khandker Mahbub Hossain, Zainul Abedin, AJ Mohammad Ali and Mahbub Uddin Khokon entered the jail around 4:00pm and came out after nearly an hour.
Rezzak said the former premier asked them to place the argument before the Supreme Court that the High Court earlier granted her bail on health grounds.
Khandker Mahbub said they hoped the SC would grant bail to Khaleda on Tuesday if the rule of law prevailed in the country.
Zainul, also the president of Supreme Court Bar Association, said they saw Khaleda “seriously ill”.
“She cannot move her left hand. She also has a problem in her neck. She needs better treatment which is not possible in jail.”
The lawyer said Khaleda needed to undergo treatment in the city's United Hospital. “It is regrettable that she has been suffering in jail without treatment.”
The BNP chief landed in jail on February 8 after a Dhaka court had handed her five-year jail sentence for misappropriating a donation fund of the Zia Orphanage Trust.
The Supreme Court on March 19 stayed until May 8 the High Court order that granted bail to Khaleda in the graft case.