The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Inspector General (Prisons) Brig Gen Zakir Hasan yesterday said detained former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was not forced to appear before the Special Court, trying her in a graft case, by the jail authority.

''We cannot use force against a personality like Sheikh Hasina, who was a Prime Minister of the country and everyone should realise it,'' he told a press conference protesting some media reports quoting her as telling that she was forced to attend the Court and released from the hospital without completing her treatment.

Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League (AL) President, was taken to the dock under the Court's order, as she was released by the Square Hospital, he added.

The hospital authority issued a letter, which stated that her current health condition was fine enough to be able to appear in court, he told at a press conference at the Directorate of Prisons yesterday.

He told that all their previous attempts to persuade her to appear in court had failed. He said they informed her about the court order, but she refused to go. "We also brought three of her lawyers and her husband scientist Dr Wazed Miah to persuade her to go on March 29, and I also personally requested her to go there. But all of our attempts failed," the IG disclosed.