Online Desk : The government has extended BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia’s parole for six more months suspending her prison term in two cases over corruption.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told journalists at the Secretariat on Sunday.

He said, Khaleda’s younger brother Shamim Iskandar filed a petition for extending the release date of his sister.

On February 8, 2018, Khaleda was sent to the Old Dhaka Central Jail after a subordinate court sentenced her to five years’ imprisonment in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case. The High Court later doubled her jail term. She was found guilty in another corruption case the same year.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, the government freed Khaleda from jail for six months through an executive order suspending her sentences on March 25 last year.

She was released from the prison cell of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) the same day, and she has been staying at her Gulshan house since then.

On March 15 this year, the government extended her release for six more months.