Ershad's supporters demend his release

[Abdur_Rahman]

WIRE: 03/01/2001 7:11 am ET

Supporters of Bangladesh's Ershad demand release

DHAKA, March 1 (Reuters) - Supporters of Bangladesh's former president Hossain Mohammad Ershad staged an angry protest on Thursday over a delay in his release from prison.
Dhaka's Second Additional District and Session Judge, Mohammad Kader Newaz, issued an order on Wednesday for Ershad to be freed because he had paid half of a more than 50 million taka ($1 million) fine for a graft charge.

But prison authorities told a crowd of supporters, including his wife Begum Roushan Ershad, that his release had been delayed as procedural matters had not been completed.

Ershad's supporters chanted slogans of support and police moved in and pushed the crowd away from the gate of Dhaka Central Jail but there was no violence, witnesses said.

Ershad, then a lieutenant-general and chief of army staff, seized power in a bloodless coup in 1982.

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

Ershad was freed on bail in January 1997 to fight the last of 17 cases of corruption and misuse of power but was sent back to jail on November 20, 2000, to finish a five-year sentence over a graft charge after he exhausted the appeal process.

The graft charge stemmed from a high-rise office complex Ershad allegedly had built using state money while in power.

Ershad's attorney, Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, told Reuters the judge had ordered his release after he had deposited half the fine he owed at the central Bangladesh Bank.

Ershad, 71, was elected a member of parliament in a 1996 general election but he was stripped of his membership in parliament in February on the grounds of "moral turpitude."

He was also disqualified from participating in national elections for the next five years.