Khaleda will have to go to court again for treatment abroad: Home minister

BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia will have to go to the court and follow legal procedures again if she wants to go abroad for treatment, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said.

"Khaleda Zia is currently receiving treatment following the legal procedures. If she wants to go abroad, she has to go to court again. We have no other option open for now," Kamal said while talking to reporters after attending a programme at Institution of Diploma Engineers Bangladesh (IDEB) on Saturday (11 June).

"Khaleda Zia is a convicted accused. At the request of her relatives, arrangements have been made for the highest medical treatment for Khaleda Zia in the country," said the home minister.

Mentioning that the court is completely independent, Kamal said, "The court has already given its opinion regarding Khaleda Zia's treatment. She (Khaleda) will have to go to court again if she expects any new opinion from the court."

Khaleda Zia was taken from her Gulshan residence to Evercare Hospital at 2:55am after she suddenly fell ill at midnight.

According to her personal physician Professor AZM Zahid Hossain, the BNP chairperson suffered a heart attack last night. Stenting has been done in one of her arteries as it suffered a 99% block.

The 76-year-old former prime minister has been suffering from various ailments, including liver cirrhosis, arthritis, diabetes, kidney, lung and eye problems.

Khaleda was sent to the Old Dhaka Central Jail as a lower court sentenced her to five years imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case on February 8, 2018. Later, she was found guilty in another corruption case the same year.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government temporarily freed Khaleda Zia from jail through an executive order suspending her jail sentence on 25 March 2020, with conditions that she will stay in her Gulshan house and will not leave the country.