Bangladesh's army-backed government has given Abdul Jalil, the detained general secretary of the Awami League, permission to go abroad for a month for medical treatment, a senior prison official said on Sunday.
Jalil, 67, who was arrested by the government as part of an anti-corruption drive, has been ill at a Dhaka hospital for months with a kidney ailment. His condition has worsened over the past few days.
"The authorities agreed to requests by Jalil's family and party ... so that he could be treated away from the country," said Zakir Hasan, Inspector-General of Prisons in Bangladesh.
"He has been granted permission to leave the country purely on health and humanitarian grounds," he told Reuters, adding any political activity could lead to the permission being cancelled. Jalil's family plans to take him to Singapore. His physicians say Jalil needs a kidney transplant. Awami League chief Sheikh Hasina and her rival Begum Khaleda Zia of the country's other biggest party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), both former prime ministers, are also in jail facing trial for graft and abuse of power.
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