Former Bangladeshi Pm Held for Possession of Alcohol

A former prime minister of Bangladesh has been kept in jail for two months for possession of alcohol under draconian emergency powers, the Guardian can reveal.

Moudud Ahmed, a London-trained barrister and the country's last law minister, has been held without a hearing after he was picked up when soldiers raided his home in early April. Security forces said they found 14 bottles of wine and 32 cans of beer in his kitchen after a twelve-hour search. Mr Ahmed's arrest was said to be part of an "anti-corruption" drive.

The 70-year-old disappeared from public view in the Muslim nation of 150 million people, surfacing only briefly to hear why he had been jailed.

Mr Ahmed's wife, Hasna, a noted environmentalist, is in hiding in the UK. Speaking to the Guardian, she said her husband had been "tortured mentally and physically. He is not a well man. He has been taken to hospital three times. The jail conditions are harsh. It is not, there is no toilet just a hole in the floor".

"My husband did have alcohol but it was for a party in honor of the German ambassador as he was to take up a position as a professor at Heidelberg University. But this is not to my knowledge an offense under any emergency law. We are not a Taliban state. This could not have happened if there was democracy in Bangladesh."

Mrs Ahmed says her husband has told friends that she should not return to Bangladesh. "I do not want to be a stateless person," she said.

More than 170 politicians, businessmen and former bureaucrats have been detained since the interim government, backed by the army, took over in January under emergency rule.

There are mounting concerns about the condition of many of the detainees in Bangladesh. In the first four months of the government's "anti-corruption and anti-crime" drives, 96 people died in custody and 193,329 were arrested and detained, according to Bangladeshi human rights group Odhikar.

Earlier this year Human Rights Watch called for an end to extra-judicial killings and arbitrary arrests by the security forces in the country. The organisation, whose researcher was later remanded by police, said "the killings by Bangladesh's security forces put the country's reputation as a respectable contributor to UN peacekeeping forces at risk".

The takeover by the interim government, which drew little criticism from the US, Britain or India, came after more than two months of political turmoil and street violence by supporters of the two main political parties.

Many analysts believe the real power in Bangladesh is now the country's army chief, Lt Gen Moeen U Ahmed, who says his ambitions run to retiring to a life of "social work".

He is seen by many as the chief opponent of a return to democracy and has sought to curb the feuding first ladies of Bangladeshi politics: former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and the outgoing leader, Khaleda Zia.

Political activity in the country is proscribed, with officials of the interim administration saying there is no likelihood of a return to democracy and elections before the end of next year.

This was enough to force the country's Nobel peace prizewinning "banker to the poor", Muhammad Yunus, to abandon his attempt to enter politics, dealing a blow to the country's hopes for a democratic future.

There are signs that international pressure is growing on Bangladesh. Earlier this week, the US called on Dhaka to make sure those arrested in an anti-corruption drive have access to lawyers and receive due process.