Cherie Blair takes up case of detained Bangladeshi leader

BANGLADESH: The lawyer wife of British ex-premier Tony Blair said Wednesday she was advising the legal team representing a former Bangladesh prime minister detained on corruption charges.

"I was invited to give an opinion about what has been happening," Cherie Blair told reporters in the capital Dhaka. She said she was acting as a consultant for Sheikh Hasina Wajed's legal team, and had attended a court hearing in the case earlier Wednesday. She declined to give any further details.

"Cherie Blair was present in the appellate division of the Supreme Court this morning. She observed the hearing of the graft case against Sheikh Hasina," said the former premier's lawyer Shahara Khatun.

Sheikh Hasina, 60, leader of the Awami League party, was prime minister from 1996 to 2001. She has been in custody on corruption charges since last July.

Bangladesh's army-backed emergency government took power on January 12, 2007, after months of turmoil and violence brought on by Awami League allegations of vote-rigging against the outgoing Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

The interim government has vowed to clean up the country's notoriously corrupt politics before restoring democracy later this year. The BNP leader and most recently prime minister, Khaleda Zia, and some 150 other high profile politicians have also been detained under the government's corruption crackdown.

In February Sheikh Hasina went on trial for allegedly extorting 435,000 dollars from a power company owner, although the case was later adjourned.

Dhaka, Wednesday, AFP