A Bangladeshi Court today granted bail to former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia who was jailed last month for five years in a graft case.
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 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. Party Secretary-General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said that the decision to release Zia on bail could open the door to her party’s participation in the general elections.