Dhaka, Mar 31 (PTI) Former prime minister and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia's health condition has improved and she is likely to return to Bangladesh from London in mid-April, a party leader said, according to a media report on Monday.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said Zia, 79, will return home in mid-April but it is still not certain.

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The BNP leader also said Zia's health condition has improved in London, where she is celebrating Eid with her family.

“Eid is being celebrated there today (Sunday). She is celebrating this Eid with her family after eight years,” he was quoted as saying.

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This marks Zia's third Eid celebration in London, following her stays during the 2017 and 2015 Eid events.

Meanwhile, speaking to United News of Bangladesh from London, her personal doctor AZM Zahid Hossain said the BNP is now mentally strong and in stable health.

He said Zia has been receiving treatment at home since being discharged from the hospital on January 25.

Asked about the possibility of Zia returning to Bangladesh, Dr Zahid said she could return any time after Eid, depending on the advice of her medical board.

Zia went to London on January 8 for advanced medical care and was admitted to The London Clinic.

After being discharged from the clinic, the BNP chairperson moved to her eldest son Tarique Rahman's residence, where she has been receiving treatment.

The former prime minister has long been suffering from several health conditions, including liver cirrhosis, kidney and heart issues, diabetes, and arthritis.

Earlier this month, Bangladesh's Supreme Court upheld a High Court ruling that acquitted Zia in a corruption case in which she was sentenced to seven years in jail by a lower court.

Zia was convicted in the Zia Charitable Trust corruption case in 2018 by a Dhaka court. The court sentenced her to seven years imprisonment and fined her Taka 1 million.

Zia now stands acquitted in both the Zia Orphanage Trust and Zia Charitable Trust cases, in which she had previously been convicted and sentenced, Maksud Ullah, a lawyer for the BNP chairperson, was quoted as saying by The Daily Star newspaper.

The BNP chairperson was lodged in the Old Dhaka Central Jail on February 8, 2018, after the Dhaka court sentenced her in the Zia Orphanage Trust corruption case.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government temporarily released Zia from jail after 776 days through an executive order, suspending her sentence on March 25, 2020, with conditions that she would stay in her house and not leave the country.

On August 6 last year, after the ouster of the Hasina regime, Zia was freed by an order of President Mohammed Shahabuddin.

Zia served as the prime minister of Bangladesh from March 1991 to March 1996, and again from June 2001 to October 2006. PTI

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)