Bangladesh opposition chief Khaleda Zia — who was transferred from jail to hospital final weekend — can now not use her left hand, her physician informed AFP on Tuesday.
Zia, 73, was jailed in February for corruption and has been on trial in a particular room within the deserted Dhaka Central Jail on extra graft prices that her supporters say are politically motivated.
On Saturday Zia, an extended rival to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was transferred to hospital due to poor well being following an order from the nation’s Excessive Court docket.
“Her signs have worsened in the previous few months,” Abdul Jalil Chowdhury, one of many physicians on the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical College (BSMMU) hospital who has since examined her, informed AFP.
“She has developed deformity of left hand in the previous few months attributable to lengthy standing rheumatoid arthritis. She will’t use her left hand,” he mentioned.
“As well as, she has developed left frozen shoulder,” he mentioned, including Zia was additionally affected by neck and again ache and she or he is a diabetic.
Legal professionals for Zia, who was Bangladesh’s prime minister from 1991-1996 and 2001-2006, had argued that the federal government was placing her well being in danger by refusing her specialised care in jail.
When Zia — who leads the Bangladesh Nationalist Celebration — was jailed in February for corruption, the sentence triggered clashes between police and hundreds of BNP supporters.
She was discovered responsible of embezzling cash supposed for an orphanage.
Zia is interesting in opposition to the decision — which bars her from standing within the basic election set for December — and was granted bail earlier this yr.
Nonetheless she stays in custody whereas she fights dozens of different violence and graft prices.
Final month the authorities turned a room of the jail right into a courtroom — a transfer her attorneys mentioned was unlawful.
Zia already had well being points together with arthritis, diabetes and knee replacements when she was sentenced.
She is the one inmate in Dhaka Central Jail, constructed within the 19th century underneath British colonial rule and declared deserted in 2016.
Her social gathering boycotted the 2014 election by which Hasina returned to energy however is anticipated to contest the election due in December.