Bangladesh ex-President back to jail after check-up

"A medical board examined the former President andunanimously decided in favour of his release (from hospital)," said Professor M.A. Zaman, director of the National Institute of Cardio Vascular Diseases Dhaka (ICVDD).

Ershad, 71, was sent to jail on November 20 to complete a five-year sentence after he ran out of appeals.

He spent nearly six years in prison after being deposed inDecember 1990 in a popular uprising led by current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her rival Begum Khaleda Zia, head of the main Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Ershad was freed on bail in January 1997, six months afterHasina took office, to fight the last of 17 cases of corruption and misuse of power. His Jatiya Party, now a BNP ally, offered support to Hasina’s Awami league to form the government in June 1996.

Ershad, who seized power in a bloodless coup in 1982, hadbeen the country’s longest serving ruler.

He was fighting a graft charge stemming from a high-riseoffice complex he allegedly built with state money.

He fought months of court battles until November 20 toclear himself but in vain.