Online Desk: BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia`s family has applied for a stay of her sentence and permission for medical treatment abroad.

Home Ministry senior information officer Sharif Mahmud Apu confirmed the matter to Samakal.

He said Khaleda Zia`s younger brother Shamim Iskander met Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal on Tuesday afternoon and handed over the application. 

Khaleda Zia was first lodged in the abandoned central jail in Old Dhaka after being sentenced to 18 years in prison in the Zia Orphanage Trust and Charitable Trust case. He was later admitted to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital and treated for about 11 months. At that time, family members including Khaleda Zia`s brothers and sisters met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and requested for her release by an executive order. He was released on parole on the orders of the Prime Minister. There are two conditions for his release - he will receive treatment from his home and will not be able to leave the country. On March 25 last year, the government suspended his sentence for six months and released him. Later, in the second phase, his sentence was suspended for another six months. In the case of release in the second phase, the previous conditions remain unchanged.

At present Khaleda Zia is living in her home in Gulshan. Everything from his treatment to the wife of BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman from London. Zobaida Rahman is supervising. A few people including the nurse are staying with him.