UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk has pleaded with Bangladesh’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, to allow prominent opposition figure Khaleda Zia to leave the nation for immediate medical attention.
Zia, a former premier of Bangladesh twice, was reportedly in “high risk” of passing away if she didn’t receive international medical attention after the Hasina government turned down her requests to leave.
Following her release from a 17-year prison sentence in 2020, Zia, 78, has been living under effective house arrest as the leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
The domestic rivalry between the two women, dubbed the Battling Begums, has dominated South Asian politics for more than 40 years. The country has 170 million citizens.
Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a letter to Hasina that Zia’s release would be seen as “an important step towards political dialogue and reconciliation”.
“I appeal to your government to consider her release to enable her to receive the urgent and specialised medical care that she requires outside of the country,” he wrote in the letter dated 1 November and seen by AFP.
Zia has advanced liver cirrhosis, diabetes and heart problems. Three US physicians carried out minor surgery on her last month, but the government rejected a family request to allow her to travel to Germany for a liver transplant.
The opposition has been staging frequent protests as the nation gets ready for general elections that are scheduled for January. Zia’s passing would probably lead to large-scale riots.
Western countries are putting increasing pressure on Hasina, who has ruled for almost 15 years, to hold free and fair elections, which could pave the way for Zia’s resurgent BNP to make a comeback.
Turk also asked the government “to prevent any arbitrary detention including detention that could be perceived as politically motivated or which might impact the environment for fair and credible elections”.
