Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia on Wednesday provided her biometric data to the United States embassy in Dhaka as she applied for a US visa.
Khaleda鈥檚 personal physician and BNP standing committee member AZM Zahid Hossain said that the former prime minister may have to go to the US for advanced treatment.
鈥楾hat is why she went to the American embassy to provide her biometric fingerprints,鈥� he said.
He said that embassy officials including the acting ambassador welcomed her at the embassy.
Khaleda, 79, has been suffering from various diseases and doctors advised her to go to a 鈥榤ultidisciplinary medical centre鈥� in a developed country for better treatment.
On February 8, 2018, Khaleda was sentenced to five years in prison in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case. In October, 2014, the sentence was increased to 10 years after an appeal hearing in the High Court. Then, she was sentenced to another seven years in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case.
The then prime minister Sheikh Hasina exercised her executive power in 2020 suspended Khaleda鈥檚 sentence for six months. After being temporarily released on March 25 of that year, Khaleda returned to her Gulshan residence, Firoza. She has been there since then.
The day after the fall of Sheikh Hasina on August 5, president Muhammed Shahabuddin commuted the sentence of Khaleda Zia under the power of Article 49 of the Constitution.
Since then, Hasina鈥檚 government has been extending the BNP leader鈥檚 release period every six months on the request of her family. Every time, she was given two conditions. She would have to receive treatment at home and she would not be able to go abroad.
Although the family had made several requests to send her abroad, Sheikh Hasina鈥檚 government repeatedly rejected them citing those conditions.
The day after the fall of Sheikh Hasina on August 5, president Muhammed Shahabuddin commuted the sentence of Khaleda Zia under the power of Article 49 of the Constitution.
Then on October 30, Zahid Hossain said that it had been decided to take Khaleda Zia abroad for treatment. First, she would go to London to see her son Tarique Rahman. She would be taken there in a specialised air ambulance.
Later, she would be taken from London to another country and admitted to a 鈥榤ultidisciplinary medical centre鈥�.