Former Bangladeshi PM Khaleda Zia Gets Bail

Dhaka: Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia on Tuesday secured bail in five cases after she appeared in five separate courts in the capital amid tight security.

The 70-year-old was given bail when she surrendered to the court, where an estimated 5,000 supporters of her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) gathered, shouting anti-government slogans. The party had threatened to stage protests across the politically volatile country if she was arrested on the charges, which dates back to a nationwide anti-government campaign of arson in January 2015.

Speaking on the long-standing corruption and other cases, Zia’s lawyer Masud Ahmed Talukder said: “She surrendered to the court this morning and was granted bail in the arson case. She also got bail in four other cases.”

The development comes six days after the court issued an arrest warrant against Zia and 37 others in connection with instigating a deadly petrol bomb attack on a bus during an anti-government protest last year.

She also faces a case of sedition as she questioned the number of martyrs during the independence war against Pakistan in 1971. Bangladesh says Pakistani troops and local collaborators killed three million people but Zia recently expressed concern about the authenticity of this figure.

The government said Zia never questioned the official figure when she ruled the country as Prime Minister but is doing so now to confuse people and back war criminals.

Last year a Dhaka court issued an arrest warrant against her for alleged corruption. She was granted bail after she surrendered, but the charges remain live.