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Allow Hasina to go abroad for treatment

Cherie Blair urges govt

Staff Correspondent
Former British prime minister Tony Blair's wife Cherie Blair yesterday urged the caretaker govern- ' ment to allow detained fonner premier Sheikh Hasina to go abroad for emergency' treatment.
Mrs Blair also suggested that Hasina and her counsels take legal initiatives against her detention for what she said was Hasina's right to life is being undermined by inhuman and degrading treatment.
Mrs Blair was talking to a gathering of journalists on the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban premises after coming out of the special court where she observed the hearing on charge framing against Hasina and seven others in the barge-mounted power plant graft case.
She also hoped that Bangladesh would not go along the same route as neighbouring Myanmar has gone by detaining a woman politicalleader.
“I am aware that Bangladesh borders with Burma, a country’ which is not known as a supporter of the rule of law. And in Burma, there is a woman leader in a political party, who is being detained," said Mrs Blair, who arrived in town Tuesday on a three-day visit to help Hasina s counsels in the graft case.
“I would not like to think that Bangladesh was going along that route. I am sure that the government and the people of Bangladesh want to be applauding human rivhts and the rule of law," Mrs Blair added.
Thanking the caretaker government for allowing her to observe the court proceedings on Hasina and talk with her, Mrs Blair said. “It’s clear to me, as I have spoken to her, that her health is not good. She is suffering both physically and mentally due to her detention.
“I have advised her and her legal team for her own safety. It is important we should take new proceedings against her detention on the basis that it is a threat to her right to life."
Mrs Blair said in her statement, “And I am sure they [people of Bangladesh] would not want to see Sheikh Hasina brought to such a situation that her right to life is being undermined by such inhuman and degrading treatment, which is contrary to the constitution of Bangladesh.
*1 hope they would see that it was in the best interest to release her so that she can go to America and undertake emergency treatment which she needs and deserves.”
The special court-1 dealing with the barge-mounted power plant graft case yesterday also adjourned the hearing on charge framing till April 30 as Hasina fell sick in the court.
UNB adds: Cherie Blair said Bangladesh is passing through a very difficult rime without parliament and politics.
Speaking at a reception hosted by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) at its auditorium, she said where parliament is dissolved and politics is absent, the bench and bar should be vocal to uphold human rights and rule of law.
She said it is the time to see whether human rights are being maintained in Bangladesh as a signatory to the UN convention on human rights.
She deplored the prevailing situation where “even election to the Supreme Court bar is barred” and hoped that the elections would beheld soon
SCBA President barrister M Amir UI Islam presided over the reception function.