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Dhaka: Bangladesh courts trying detained former Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina on graft charges ruled on Monday that the hearings could continue in her absence, paving the way for her to go abroad for medical treatment.
Hasina asked on Sunday for permission to allow lawyers to appear on her behalf after a government-appointed medical board suggested she should be sent abroad immediately for treatment.
"Now it is just a matter of time when she will take the journey abroad," said an official of Hasina's Awami League.
"All obstacles on her travel have been removed," said her attorney Shafiq Ahmad. "She is now set to go."
As word spread that Hasina might leave country as early as last night, hundreds of party leaders and workers gathered outside the special jail in Dhaka's sprawling parliament compound, many with flowers.
Parole
Security has been tightened around the jail and party leaders said they expected Hasina to be released on parole in the evening.
Her arch-rival and fellow former prime minister Begum Khalida Zia, who is also facing corruption charges, said on Sunday she would not seek medical treatment abroad, accusing the government of setting a trap ahead of an election planned in December.
It was not clear whether the army-backed interim government would block their return if sent abroad on health grounds. An attempt to block Hasina's return from the United States early last year failed due to protests and international pressure.
Hasina is suffering from high blood pressure, eye problems and hearing impairment caused by grenade blasts at a rally in Dhaka in 2004, which killed 23 leaders and workers of her party.
Plea accepted
Her lawyers told reporters that Special Court Judge Mohammad Feroze Alam accepted her plea and said she could be represented by lawyers at her trial.
Media reports and party officials said Hasina could be leaving shortly for Canada en route to the United States, where her children live and where she has previously been treated.
The chief metropolitan magistrate's court asked the government yesterday to return Hasina's passport seized after she was detained in July last year.
Another medical board examined Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Khalida and suggested she also be taken abroad for treatment for arthritis and problems in her knees.
Khalida told a court on Sunday she would prefer to be treated in Bangladesh.
Prison officials said they were awaiting decisions from the Home (Interior) Ministry regarding sending Hasina, Khalida and her sons abroad on parole.
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