B'desh's ex-PM Khaleda Zia leaves country to undergo treatment in London

Bangladesh's ailing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia left the nation's capital for London on Tuesday for medical treatment, said one of her advisers.

Zahiruddin Swapan, an adviser to Zia, told The Associated Press by phone that the three-time former premier and also the head of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport late Tuesday on an air ambulance.

Our senior leaders left the airport seeing her off, Swapan said.

Zia's motorcade took nearly three hours to cross about a 10-kilometer stretch of road to get to the airport from her residence in Dhaka's Gulshan area as thousands of her desperate supporters greeted her on the way, creating traffic chaos. Her hours-long journey to the airport was broadcast live by television stations.

 

An interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus is running the country and plans to hold elections in December this year or in the first half of 2026.

Zia was sentenced to 17 years in jail under Hasina's rule following two corruption cases stemming from 2001-2006 when she was prime minister. Her supporters say the charges against her were politically motivated, an allegation Hasina's administration denied. Under Yunus, Zia was acquitted in one of the cases in November and an appeal in the second case was being heard on Tuesday.

Zia, 79, was freed on bail from jail under Hasina through a government order and she has been having medical treatment in the country. But Hasina's administration did not allow her to travel abroad for treatment despite requests seeking approval.

Zia's departure follows dramatic political developments since last August, when Hasina's 15-year rule ended. Hasina fled into exile in India as she and her close aides faced charges of killing hundreds of protesters during a mass protest movement that began in July.

Zia's departure could create a symbolic vacuum in the country's politics amid efforts by a student group that led the anti-Hasina protest to form a new political party. In the absence of Hasina and her secular Bangladesh Awami League party, the rise of Islamist political parties and other Islamist groups has been visible in the Muslim-majority country of 170 million people.

Zia's party has been bargaining with the Yunus-led government for an election sometime this year. Yunus said his government wants to make some major reforms before the election.