International

Jailed Bangladesh opposition leader Khaleda Zia has hired a prominent British criminal lawyer to defend her as the former prime minister faced a series of graft and  criminal cases. A Dhaka court on February 8 sentenced Zia, 72, to five years’ imprisonment finding her guilty of embezzling foreign funds for an orphanage named after her late husband Ziaur Rahman, during her premiership in 2001-2007 tenure. Last week, she was granted bail in the corruption case but was again arrested for allegedly instigating clandestine arson attacks as a fresh warrant was issued against her in that case. Zia is facing more than a dozen cases of corruption,  violence and sedition. “British lawyer Lord Carlile has been appointed to assist and provide consultations to her lawyers’ panel in fighting her cases,” Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secretary-general Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said yesterday. Alamgir said Carlile, who was earlier hired by two major 1971 war criminals during their trials, accepted the appointment and “from now on he will extend support, provide consultations and necessary legal aid as much as he can” in defending the main opposition BNP chief. Several prominent pro-BNP lawyers including former law minister Moudud Ahmed and former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar and two former attorney generals currently lead Zia’s defence team. Asked if the Bangladeshi lawyers were not good enough to fight her cases, Alamgir said Carlile was appointed to enrich “the defence panel and take the issue to the international arena”. One of the defence lawyers said Carlile would work as adviser to the lawyers’ panel, being one of the most prominent lawyers of Britain and member of the British House of Lords. Carlile had earlier served as the counsels of convicted Mir Quasem Ali and Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, who subsequently were executed for committing crimes against humanity while helping invading Pakistani troops in the 1971 liberation war. As the Supreme Court upheld the verdict against Quasem Ali, Carlile, had also written to the Bangladesh government seeking to halt their executions while he lobbied for creating international pressure for his clients. Zia has appealed in the high court against her five year sentence and a process is underway to hear her arguments, which apparently prompted her to hire the  British lawyer.

Former Bangladeshi prime minister Khaleda Zia will have to stay in prison until May, after the country’s top court yesterday stayed a temporary bail order for her following a petition by government lawyers. Zia was jailed last month in a graft case. Yesterday’s order means she will remain jailed until May 8, at least. A two-judge High Court panel approved an order for four months of interim bail on March 12, after granting Zia the right to appeal a five-year prison term handed down by a lower court. But yesterday, a four-member Supreme Court panel headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain overturned the bail, after hearing a petition by the state counsels, according to prosecution  lawyer Khurshid Alam Khan. Zia, who is also the chief of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was sent to Dhaka Central Jail on February 8, after a special court in Dhaka sentenced her to five years in jail for misappropriating funds meant for orphans. Defence lawyers vented frustration yesterday about the  latest court decision. “It is unwarranted and we are frustrated with the court order,” said Joynul Abedin, one of the lawyers handling Zia’s defence. The government’s intentions were reflected in the court’s orders, alleged Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, general secretary of the BNP, which earlier dismissed the conviction of the party chief as politically motivated. The 72-year-old politician was convicted of transferring 21mn taka ($252,203) to personal accounts from a charity named after her slain husband, Ziaur Rahman, during her 1991-96 tenure as prime minister. The lower court also sentenced Tarique Rahman, Zia’s son, who lives in exile in London, and four others to 10 years in jail. Zia’s conviction in the graft case has made her chances of contesting the next general election against her arch political rival, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, exceedingly slim, as Bangladeshi law disqualifies anyone imprisoned for at least two years for moral turpitude from running for office. A widow of army chief-turned president Ziaur Rahman, Zia was twice elected prime minister of Bangladesh, a country politically divided between her Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ruling Awami League party. Zia’s boycott allowed Hasina, a political heir of the country’s founding president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, to win the 2014 general election by a big margin.  Zia has been facing at least 30 other charges that include corruption,  violence and sedition.

The bodies of the 23 Bangladeshis killed in a plane crash in Nepal were flown home yesterday as mourners prepared a massive funeral. A Bangladesh Air Force cargo plane, bearing the coffins, landed at Hazrat Shahjalal  International Airport in Dhaka. Ruling Bangladeshi Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader, also the road transport minister, received the bodies at the airport, Xinhua news agency reported. The bodies include those of pilot Abid Sultan, co-pilot Prithula Rashid and crew members, Khwaja Hossain Mohammad Shafey and Sharmeen  Akter Nabila. At least 51 people were killed as the aircraft of Bangladesh’s private US-Bangla Airlines, with 71 people onboard, crashed and burst into flames while landing at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport on March 12. Bangladesh and Nepal civil aviation authorities have launched a joint investigation, amid reports of confusion between the pilot and air traffic control over the runway  approach. Thousands of people including government high-ups and relatives and well-wishers of the victims gathered at an Army Stadium in the capital for ‘namaz-e-janaza’  (funeral prayer). The bodies were handed over to the relatives after the funeral service. Of 71 people, four were cabin crew, 32 people were from Bangladesh, 33 from Nepal and one each from China and the  Maldives.  Bodies of three more Bangladeshi crash victims will be flown back to Bangladesh after their identities are confirmed through DNA tests.

The bodies of 23 Bangladeshi nationals recovered from the wreckage of a deadly plane crash in Nepal have arrived in Dhaka, the government said on Monday. A special flight operated by state-owned Biman Bangladesh Airlines carried the coffins of 23 of the 26 Bangladeshi nationals killed in last week's crash to Dhaka, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Shahjahan Kamal received the bodies at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport. A Nepal-bound flight operated by the Dhaka-based US-Bangla Airlines with 71 people on board crashed and burst into flames at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport on March 12, killing at least 50 people.  A minute's silence was observed before refrigerated vans took the coffins from the airport to Dhaka's Army Stadium for funeral prayers. Floral wreaths were placed on the coffins on behalf of President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.  The premier did not turn up to the proceedings in person. A senior minister of Hasina's cabinet said she would meet the families of the victims at her office soon. "She will assist the families with whatever means necessary," Obaidul Quader, Bangladesh's Roads and Bridges Affairs Minister, told reporters after the service.     Foreign Ministry spokesman Mozaffor Hossain said the 23 bodies were handed over to relatives after the prayers. Television footage showed grief-stricken relatives breaking down while receiving the coffins. Quader said the three other bodies will be flown to Dhaka after their identification is confirmed by their relatives in Kathmandu. Six of the 10 Bangladeshi nationals who sustained injuries were brought back to Dhaka for medical care, the minister added.  

Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Monday halted the release of opposition leader Khaleda Zia on bail, deepening a political crisis ahead of a national election due in December. The top justices suspended a lower court's decision to grant Zia bail until May, prompting a sharp reaction from her lawyers who said it was part of a campaign by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to silence the opposition. ‘It is an unprecedented order in the judicial history of Bangladesh. We think it is not the decision of the top court, rather it is a government decision,’ one of Zia's lawyers, Sanaullah Mia, told AFP. Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary general of Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) said the order was a ‘reflection’ of the government's desire to keep Zia confined during the election, which is widely expected to be held in December. ‘We've repeatedly said people are not getting justice in the country and the judiciary is controlled by the government,’ Alamgir told AFP. The 72-year-old BNP leader was jailed for five years last month on charges of embezzling money intended for an orphanage. The three times former prime minister, now being held in a special jail, has consistently dismissed the charges as politically motivated. The BNP wanted Zia freed pending appeals before a high court so that she can lead the party's election campaign. Violence erupted in cities across Bangladesh after the guilty verdict on February 8 as BNP supporters clashed with police and ruling party activists. Zia, who entered politics in the 1980s after her military dictator husband was assassinated in a failed coup, also faces dozens of separate charges related to violence and corruption. Her party boycotted a 2014 national election in which Hasina was re-elected. The BNP is expected to contest the upcoming election however. Zia and her son were detained by an army-backed government in 2007 and spent a year and a half in detention pending trials for alleged corruption.

The Supreme Court (SC) will pass its decision today on two separate pleas filed against a High Court order granting bail to BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia. “Tomorrow - for order,” said a four-member division bench headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain after a full bench hearing on the petitions moved by attorney general Mahbubey Alam and Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) counsel Khurshid Alam Khan. While opposing the High Court order, the ACC counsel said all the other accused in the case were sentenced to 10-year imprisonment, while Zia was handed down five-year imprisonment considering her age and social status. “So there is no need to consider her age and social status again for granting her bail,” he said. The attorney general too referred to different cases while opposing Zia’s bail in the case. He also pleaded to reset the time given by the High Court to  prepare the papers of the case. The Supreme Court on March 14 stayed the High Court order that granted bail to BNP chairperson in Zia Orphanage  Trust corruption case. A four-member division bench headed by Chief Justice Syed Hossain passed the order following two pleas filed by the ACC and the state. “Adjourned till March 18 and stay,” the apex court said, asking the ACC and state to file regular appeal pleas by that day.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday asked the private medical colleges to pay special attention to standard of education and curriculum to create quality doctors. “Private sector is coming forward to establish medical colleges. But I think the authorities concerned should pay more attention to maintaining standard of education and curriculum properly in these colleges,” Prime Minister Hasina said, while inaugurating a two-day international conference on critical care medicine in Dhaka yesterday. She said that the government has given utmost importance to the development of the healthcare facilities and will do everything whatever needed for this purpose. “We want to make the healthcare facilities available at the doorsteps of people, even in the rural areas,” she said. She mentioned that the government in its previous 1996-2001 tenure introduced the community clinics, aiming to provide healthcare services in the rural areas. Hasina said healthcare service is a great and noble profession and the physicians will have to render services to their patients with sincerity and dedication. Putting emphasis on receiving training, she mentioned that the government wants Bangladesh’s doctors and nurses to be trained in foreign countries. She assured that more steps would be taken to provide improved foreign training to physicians and nurses. She also directed the authorities concerned to impose restrictions on the entry of huge number of visitors to hospitals, particularly to ICU, saying a patient in the sensitive zone might face serious harm due to infections caused by the visitors. Hasina praised the doctors and nurses working at the ICU with high risks and said they do the noble job like bringing patients with critical condition back to normal life. About the steps of the government for further improving healthcare services, Hasina said Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) was established as the country’s first medical university, while three more medical universities are being set up - one at Chittagong, one at Rajshahi and another at Sylhet. “We will establish medical university in all divisional headquarters,” she said.  The prime minister said many physicians are now getting opportunities to utilise their skills and efficiency after completing postgraduate degrees on critical care medicine from BSMMU, DMC and Birdem.  Pointing to Bangladesh’s graduation to a developing country from the LDC group, the prime minister said Bangladesh got the recognition of the UN after long 46 years of independence. It has been possible because of the government’s success in implementation of MDGs, attaining capability in healthcare and education, achieving high GDP growth and per capita income, she said. Hasina stressed maintaining continuation of the success saying Bangladesh would never be dependent on others and would go ahead keeping pace with the world.

Students of different universities and colleges demonstrate against the existing quota system in BCS (Bangladesh Civil Service) and other government jobs recruitment in Dhaka yesterday.

The Supreme Court of Bangladesh will today hear four separate petitions filed in connection with a High Court order that granted bail to former prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia in connection with the Zia Orphanage Trust graft case. Two of the petitions have challenged the high court’s decision to grant bail, while the third and fourth petitions have been filed for vacating the Supreme Court order that stayed the bail.  According to the website of the apex court, all four petitions have been included as items No. 9 and 10 on Sunday’s cause list placed before a four-member bench of the appellate division headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain. On Thursday, according to the Daily Star, the government and the Anti-Corruption Commission had filed two separate leave-to-appeal petitions with the Supreme Court challenging the grant of bail to Zia by the High Court. On Wednesday, Zia had filed two separate petitions with the Supreme Court for vacating its order that stayed her bail hours after the high court order. The BNP chief has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case. The case relates to corruption over the misuse of funds in a charity named after former President Zia-ur-Rahman, Khaleda Zia’s husband, who was assassinated in 1981. On August 8, 2011, the Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commission filled the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case in the Tejgaon police station. Initially, four people, including Zia, were the accused in the case. The other three were Harris Chowdhury, former political secretary to Zia, Zia-ul Islam Munna, incumbent acting director of naval security and traffic in the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, and the personal assistant to former mayor of Dhaka, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Monirul Islam Khan. In all, there are now six accused in this case, including Zia’s son Tarique Rahman. The case has accused them of embezzling 21mn Taka from the trust. Zia was given a five-year imprisonment and has been in jail since February 8.

Civil Aviation Authority in Bangladesh (Caab) chairman Naim Hassan has said the prone into US-Bangla plane crash might take more than one year to complete. “Normally, investigation into any plane crash takes one year,” said the Caab chairman while talking to reporters recently. As the plane crash took place in Nepal, they are investigating the incident and a Bangladesh team will assist them, he said.  Hassan said, “The Black Box will be sent to Canada, while other parts of the aircraft will be tested. It’ll take time to complete all the formalities.” It is not possible to set a fixed time to end the probe, he said.  “The identification process of the deceased is underway, and it will be completed soon. The autopsy of the 19 bodies has already been completed,” said the Caab chairman. US-Bangla Airlines flight BS211, which flew from Dhaka to Kathmandu carrying 67 passengers and four crew members, crashed at Tribhuvan International Airport in the capital of Himalayan country of Nepal on March 12, leaving 51 people, including 26 Bangladeshis, dead. A Nepali travel agent who survived a plane crash earlier this week said passengers should refrain from sleeping during landing and takeoff. Dayaram Tamrakar said from his hospital bed that he was able to get up from his seat, break down the emergency door and help other passengers because he was alert. “I was able to grab on to my seat during the crash, quickly release seat belts, spring up from the seat and have the sense to force open the emergency door because I was alert,” Tamrakar said, adding he was able to help other passengers before he heard there was fire and decided to jump off the plane. He thinks that it was the quick thinking of him and other fellow passengers to swiftly break down the emergency exit that helped save so many lives. Twenty people survived the crash on Monday that killed 51. “When someone said there was fire it was time to get off the plane. I jumped and looked back and saw the tail part was already on fire,” he said. “The army and emergency services were quick to respond; that probably also helped save so many people.” “I am just thankful that I am alive, although some of my friends did not make it alive,” he said. He was traveling in a group of 14 travel operators in Nepal whom the airline had flown to Bangladesh for an award function. Relatives of the victims have identified 17 of the 26 Bangladeshis who died in the plane crash in Nepal. Bangladesh ambassador in Nepal Mashfee Binte Shams confirmed the number of identified Bangladeshi victims yesterday. She said the bodies would be sent back to Dhaka on Tuesday. She hoped it would be possible to identify the bodies of the remaining victims. Tests will be conducted to match DNA profiles of those whom the relatives would not be able to identify finally, she said, adding the bodies would be in Nepal until the results of the tests were out.

Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina stands besides orchids named in her honour during a visit to the Singapore Botanical Garden last week. Sheikh Hasina was in Singapore on a two-day official visit.

Bangladesh yesterday observed a national day of mourning in memory of the 26 people killed in a US-Bangla Airplanes plane crash in Nepal. The Bangladeshi government said in a statement that its national flag would fly at half-mast at all public, semi-public, autonomous and private offices as well as in all Bangladesh diplomatic missions abroad, bdnews24.com reported. The aircraft with 71 people on board crashed and burst into flames while landing at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport on Monday. Fifty-one people were killed, including 26 Bangladeshis. Ten Bangladeshis were also injured in the accident, of whom three would continue to receive treatment in Kathmandu. Two of the injured will be transferred to India, four will be moved to Bangladesh, and one has arrived in Singapore for treatment, the Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry said in a statement cited by Efe news. “An injured passenger was taken to Singapore by an air ambulance last night,” US-Bangla Airlines spokesperson Kamrul Islam said, adding that the condition of the injured was critical. A majority of the victims suffered serious burns in the accident after the aircraft skidded off the runway, crashed and caught fire. Initial investigations indicated that a miscommunication between the control tower at Kathmandu Airport and the cockpit could have caused the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 aircraft to crash. The accident was the worst in the last 25 years in Nepal, which has repeatedly faced international sanctions for failing to adhere to safety standards in its aviation sector. The European Union has banned Nepali airlines from operating in its territory since 2013, citing poor safety standards. Flights suspended Bangladesh’s US-Bangla Airlines has suspended its flights to Nepal indefinitely, a spokesman said yesterday citing a shortage of aircraft, days after one of its planes crashed as it tried to land in the Nepali capital, killing 51 people. “We had to stop flight operations between Dhaka and Kathmandu due to a shortage of aircrafts,” airline spokesman Kamrul Islam told Reuters. He said flights on other domestic and international routes would operate as normal. The crash investigation might take a year to complete, said Air Vice Marshal Naim Hassan, chairman of the Bangladesh’s civil aviation regulatory agency.

Sri Lanka is likely to lift a ban on social media networks this week, a government minister has said, almost a week after blocking access to prevent the spread of communal violence. At least two people were killed in clashes in early March when Sinhalese Buddhists, angered by a killing of a driver, attacked mosques and Muslim-owned properties in the central Kandy district, a popular tourist destination. Some of the violence was instigated by postings on Facebook threatening more attacks on Muslims, according to the government, which on March 7 cut access to Facebook, Viber and WhatsApp. It initially said the ban would last for three days, but users say the services have remained blocked, indicating that in practice the ban has been extended. Harin Fernando, the telecommunication minister, told reporters that senior Facebook company officials were expected to visit Sri Lanka on Thursday and the government was likely to lift the ban on both Facebook and WhatsApp access. “Once we discuss with the Facebook officials on Thursday, the ban is likely to be lifted on Friday,” he said, adding Facebook had been ‘slow’ to address the government’s concerns. The government said in a separate statement it lifted the ban on Viber from midnight on Tuesday. The government will lift the ban on WhatsApp from midnight, Austin Fernando, the head of the telecommunications regulator, said yesterday. Communal tensions have grown over the past year with some hardline Buddhist groups accusing Muslims of forcing people to convert to Islam and vandalising Buddhist archaeological sites. Muslim groups deny these allegations. Fernando said authorities would closely monitor the networks for any hate speech that could damage ethnic harmony. He said without elaborating that two state-run institutions would be directly working with the Facebook company on the  monitoring. He added that the government could not control hate speech and fake messages on Facebook by both “extreme” Buddhists and Muslims and it had become a major menace to national  security. “We have seen the destruction due to Facebook messages. We have requested the Facebook to help us to stop hate speech and the problems those messages have created,” he said. In a statement to Reuters, Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, said it had clear rules against hate speech and incitement to violence. It was responding to the situation in Sri Lanka and was in contact with the government and non-government bodies to support efforts to identify and remove such content, it added. “We are concerned with the way access to the internet is being restricted and depriving people of important connections and expression, and we hope that access will be restored soon,” it said. US ambassador Atul Keshap said on his Twitter feed that the longer Sri Lanka’s social media ban persisted, the greater the damage to tourism, the information technology sector, business, and its reputation for freedom and openness. “So many Sri Lankans also rely on social media to connect with loved ones overseas,” he said. Police are investigating whether 10 suspected ringleaders of the wave of attacks on Muslims had outside funding or foreign help. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said that the police’s terrorism investigation unit had found more than 10,000 leaflets aiming to instigate communal clashes from one of the suspect’s office in Kandy. He also said 280 people have been arrested so far and the police have been able to find seven petrol bombs from the information supplied by some of those among the 10 arrested  ringleaders. A police curfew in Kandy was lifted on Saturday, but since then two isolated attacks on Muslim-owned properties have been reported from the country’s South and North Western district. Sri Lanka’s Muslims make up about 9% of its 21mn people and mostly live in the east and centre of the island. Buddhist Sinhalese account for about 70% and ethnic Tamils, most of whom are Hindus, about 13%. Some Buddhist nationalists have protested against the presence in Sri Lanka of Muslim Rohingya asylum-seekers from mostly Buddhist Myanmar, where Buddhist nationalism has also been on the rise.

The prime minister of Bangladesh has declared Thursday a day of mourning for the victims of a deadly plane crash in Nepal earlier this week, DPA reports from Dhaka. A flight operated by Dhaka-based private US-Bangla Airlines with 71 people aboard crashed and burst into fire at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport on Monday. The death toll rose to 50 with the passing of a pilot at a Nepal hospital on Tuesday, according to the Bangladeshi foreign ministry. Twenty-six of those killed were from Bangladesh. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who cut short a trip to Singapore to return home after the accident, declared the day of mourning at a meeting yesterday, PM’s press officer Ashraful Alam Khokon said. Special prayers will be offered at the mosques, temples and churches across Bangladesh on Friday to seek salvation of the departed souls, the officer said. A delegation led by Bangladesh’s Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Shahjahan Kamal left Dhaka for Kathmandu after the crash to bring back the bodies of the Bangladeshi passengers. Authorities in Nepal have launched an investigation to determine the causes of the accident.

Summit Power International said yesterday it signed a memorandum of understanding with Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp and subsidiary Diamond Gas International to develop a $3bn LNG-to-power project in Bangladesh.  Under the MoU, subsidiary Summit Corp, group company Summit Holdings and the Japanese firms agreed to develop an integrated liquefied natural gas (LNG) onshore receiving terminal with regasification capacity of up to 1,500mn cubic feet per day (mmcfd) at Matarbari, Moheskhali, in the Bay of Bengal.  They also agreed to develop two 1,200 megawatt (MW) gas turbine combined cycle power generators, relevant high voltage transmission lines and the  import of LNG. “This MoU will help Summit Power International support Bangladesh’s fast-growing energy, power and technology needs,” said Aziz Khan, chairman of Summit Power International, which is incorporated in Singapore.  “The two groups are well-positioned to uniquely benefit from opportunities arising from the Bangladesh government’s move to raise LNG imports to meet the country’s domestic natural gas shortfall and expand the country’s power generation capacity.”  Summit Power is the largest independent power producer in Bangladesh, representing about 21% of the country’s private power market last year, the  company said.  Summit Power is set in April to become the first Bangladeshi firm to list in the Singapore Exchange (SGX), as it seeks to raise funds to invest in assets across Asia.  With up to 30% of the more than 160mn people in Bangladesh lacking access to electricity, Summit hopes to invest in projects to meet that expected increase in demand, Khan told Reuters in February.  Bangladesh will require about 7mn tonnes of LNG by 2022 and similar volumes of coal by 2024, Khan had said then.  Diamond Gas International is a wholly-owned LNG sales subsidiary that Mitsubishi Corp  established in Singapore.

A Bangladeshi court granted bail yesterday to former prime minister Khaleda Zia, who was jailed last month for five years for graft, raising a chance her party might take part in a December general election. Zia is a two-term prime minister whose bitter rivalry with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has defined  Bangladeshi politics for years. Their feud hangs over the run-up to a December election with Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) vowing to boycott the polls in a protest against what it has said was Zia’s unfair jailing on trumped up charges. “The High Court granted her bail for four months,” Moudud Ahmed, a lawyer in the case and also a senior leader of Zia’s party, told reporters after the court ruling. The decision to release Zia on bail could open the door to her party’s participation in the general election, party secretary-general Fakhrul Alamgir said. “We cannot say just now. Let our chief come out and then we will sit with her and we’ll discuss it,” Alamgir said. “We are always in favour of elections, but there must be a congenial atmosphere.” It was not immediately clear when Zia would be released from detention. Earlier yesterday, Alamgir said an election without Zia would be “meaningless”. He also said that unless the judgement against her was overturned, she would not be able to contest the election even if she got bail. Under Bangladesh electoral rules, anyone jailed for more than two years cannot contest an election for five years. The BNP boycotted the last polls, in 2014, in a protest against Hasina’s scrapping of the practice of having a caretaker government oversee  elections. A boycott in December would again give the prime minister’s Awami League a clear run at power when the opposition could be benefiting from voter frustration with prices, unemployment, power cuts and anger over what many see as heavy-handed government tactics against opponents. Another boycott would also dash any hopes of stability, and raise risks for the country’s garment industry, which accounts for 80% of exports, which could face disruption by transport blockades in the event of unrest. At the same time, efforts to combat Islamist militants behind a string of bloody attacks in recent years risk being hampered by turmoil. “Politics could become even more toxic,” the International Crisis Group think-tank said in a recent note. “The government’s continued marginalisation of BNP and its forcing underground of opponents like Jamaat-e-Islami, risk sapping resources from efforts to disrupt jihadists.” Jamaat, Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party and an ally of the BNP, has been accused of  inciting militancy. It denies that and opposition parties have denounced the crackdown on Jamaat leaders as a way to silence rivals. The BNP says the case against Zia is politically motivated by a ruling party riding roughshod over human rights and the rule of law. “This is a totally one-party-rule here and it is totally dictatorial. Under these circumstances she’s been convicted,” Alamgir said. Law Minister Anisul Huq said the court decision to grant Zia bail proved that the government did not interfere in court matters. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, a senior member of Hasina’s party, denied that the government had any role in Zia’s conviction, and said the BNP was merely trying to score political points with its accusations.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina chats with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during a call at the Istana presidential palace in Singapore yesterday. Sheikh Hasina is in Singapore on a two-day official visit.

Bangladesh opposition leader Khaleda Zia is set to be released from jail after a court on Monday granted her bail, her lawyer said. The 72-year-old leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was jailed for five years last month after she was convicted of embezzling money meant for an orphanage, a charge she had consistently dismissed as politically motivated. Since then she has been held in isolation in a special jail in the old part of the capital Dhaka pending an appeal. Her lawyer Zainul Abedin told reporters the court had agreed to an interim bail of four months. Violence erupted in major cities across Bangladesh after the guilty verdict was pronounced on February 8, with BNP supporters clashing with police and activists from the ruling party. Zia, who entered politics in the mid-1980s after her military dictator husband was assassinated in an abortive coup, also faces dozens of separate charges related to violence and corruption. The former ally turned arch-foe of Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has repeatedly said the charges she faces are aimed at excluding her and her family from politics. Her party boycotted the 2014 polls in which Hasina was re-elected but is expected to contest the upcoming general election. BNP secretary general Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said the delay in granting her bail had been an "anomaly". "In such cases, bail is usually granted instantly as soon as an appeal is lodged. This case (of Zia) was an absolute anomaly of being so late," he told AFP. Zia and her son were detained by an army-backed government in 2007 and spent a year and a half in detention pending trials for alleged corruption. The ex-premier is also accused of dozens of other criminal cases. Her supporters fear the ruling party may try and keep her detained on other charges.

UN officials said yesterday that nearly $1bn will be needed this year to feed and care for the roughly 1mn Rohingya refugees living in overcrowded camps in southeastern Bangladesh. The $950mn for this year’s aid effort was “a very legitimate and valid” request given the magnitude of the crisis, the UN resident co-ordinator in Bangladesh said. “It’s a new and evolving crisis. The needs are huge. These people came with nothing. We hope the support will continue,” the UN country head Mia Seppo said. The funding request could be raised this week at a UN conference in Geneva. In October, nations pledged $345mn in response to the Rohingya crisis. The UN said at the time it needed $434mn to care for the displaced Muslims until February. Food, shelter and healthcare remain pressing needs for the Rohingya, who fled a Myanmar army crackdown in Rakhine state en masse over the past six months. But there are other urgent considerations. As the monsoon season nears, aid groups need to relocate an estimated 100,000 refugees living in areas prone to landslides and floods, Seppo said. The UN-backed Inter Sector Coordination Group has also factored into the relief budget the cost of mass vaccination drives against diseases like cholera, diphtheria and measles, the group’s head Sumbul Rizvi said. Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed in November to begin repatriating Rohingya who volunteered to return to Rakhine state where the persecuted Muslim minority have lived for generations. But the process has stalled and it is not clear when it will begin, said Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner Mohammad Abul Kalam. A quarter of the proposed $950mn funding for the remainder of the year would go to Bangladeshis living in Cox’s Bazar whose lives have been upended by the massive refugee influx. Nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have crossed the border since August, clearing forests and camping on hillsides already crowded with more than 300,000 refugees from previous waves of migration. Prices for local goods have skyrocketed and competition for jobs and resources intensified in the largely-rural border district, said Kalam. “We will try to compensate these farmers,” he said. Separately, police in Cox’s Bazar briefly detained 39 foreign aid workers on Sunday for questioning over alleged visa violations. Afrujul Haq Tutul, the deputy police chief of Cox’s Bazar, said the aid staff had been working on tourist visas, but were later released.

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina set to leave for a four-day official visit to Singapore today. A Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight will carry the prime minister and members of her entourage. The flight is scheduled to reach Changi Airport in Singapore in the afternoon. Foreign Minister Mahmood Ali, State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid and senior government officials will accompany her during the tour. A high-level business delegation will also accompany the PM. Tomorrow, Prime Minister Hasina will be given a welcome reception by the Singapore government. After the welcome reception, Hasina will pay a courtesy call on Singapore President Halimah Yacob at Istana. Official talks between Sheikh Hasina and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will take place tomorrow morning. Following the talks, Bangladesh and Singapore are set to sign six memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for further enhancing co-operation in different sectors. A memorandum of understanding will be signed between the International Enterprise Singapore and Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) on investment  collaboration. Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) and Singapore Manufacturing Federation will sign an MoU while Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) and Singapore Manufacturing Federation will sign another MoU to strengthen business relations. Other MoUs will be signed on public private partnership, expansion of air service agreement, digital leadership, innovation and digital government  transformation. On Tuesday, Hasina will attend a ceremony where an orchid in Singapore Botanical Garden, also world heritage site, will be named after her. Later, she will join Singapore-Bangladesh Business Forum and Business Roundtable at Shangri-La Hotel as chief guest. Prime Minister Hasina will return home on March 14.