Police in Bangladesh arrested former prime minister Khaleda Zia yesterday as part of a major campaign against corruption launched by the country's army-backed government.
Zia, 63, and her younger son Arafat Rahman Coco were taken from their Dhaka home to court and then remanded in custody pending investigation by the government's anti-graft body, officials said.
"Her lawyer pleaded for bail for Zia and son. But the court refused the bail and sent her to jail. It also remanded her son to seven days in police custody," deputy commissioner Shahidul Haq Bhuiyan said.
PHOTO: EPA
"She has been sent to a special jail" at a parliament building complex close to another special prison where her bitter rival Sheikh Hasina Wajed, another former prime minister, is being held, he added.
Bangladesh has been ruled under a state of emergency since January, when elections were canceled.
The polls were scrapped due to months of violence over vote-rigging allegations made by Sheikh Hasina's Awami League party against Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
The two women have also been blamed for 16 years of misrule during which corruption became rampant in Bangladesh.
The new emergency authorities, backed by the powerful armed forces, have vowed to clean up the country's politics before holding new elections by the end of next year.
The country's anti-graft commission filed its first case against Zia late Sunday. She ruled the country twice, from 1991 to 1996 and from 2001 to last year.
She and her younger son are alleged to have illegally influenced the selection of an operator for two state-run container depots, costing the government some 10 billion taka (US$145 million).
Her eldest son and heir apparent Tareque Rahman was detained in April over separate extortion charges.
Zia's lawyer said the arrest was part of an apparent effort to force her out of politics.
"She told the court that the case was fabricated, motivated, conspiratorial and fictitious. It is aimed at forcing her out of politics. She said she would come back more stronger," Abdul Wadud Khandaker said.
A large contingent of police surrounded Zia's house in Dhaka early Monday morning. Zia, who was dressed in a white sari, looked calm and waved to a crowd as she was led to court amid heavy security.
Zia was catapulted into politics in early 1980s at the age of 38 when her husband and military strongman Ziaur Rahman was assassinated in a coup.
She became the Muslim majority nation's first female prime minister in 1991 after democracy was restored.
But she has been under virtual arrest since April when attempts to send her into exile in Saudi Arabia failed after Riyadh reportedly refused to give her a visa.
Sheikh Hasina, who ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, was detained in mid-July and faces half a dozen cases of corruption and murder.
She is being held at a house inside the parliament complex. On Sunday she was named in a new case for taking a bribe from a private power producer in 1997.
In all, some 150 high-profile figures have been arrested as part of the anti-graft campaign.
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