Bangladesh ex-Speaker gets bail in murder bid case

Former Parliamentary Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury was on Sunday released from a high security jail on the outskirts of Dhaka on a court order, five days after she was arrested on charges of attempted murder.

Earlier in the day, a Dhaka court had granted bail to the country’s first female and three-time Speaker, 59-year-old Chaudhury, on a bond of Tk 50,000, following a hearing in an attempted murder case linked to the July-August student-led protest of 2024.

“She was released from Kashimpur Central Jail after scrutiny of the court’s bail order,” Prison Department spokesperson Jannat-ul Farhad said. Media reports said Chaudhury walked out of Kashimpur prison in the evening when her family members received her. Chaudhury served as the first female Speaker of the Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad from April 2013 to September 2024.