DHAKA, 7 January 2008 — Doctors treating Bangladeshi former Prime Minister Hasina Wajed appealed to the caretaker government yesterday to allow her to seek medical treatment in the United States. The appeal came shortly after a special court adjourned her trial on extortion charges because she was sick.

Hasina, in detention since her arrest in July, fell sick in court on Dec. 31 and her lawyers and doctors said she was suffering from high blood pressure and ear and eye problems.

She is charged with extorting some $1 million from two businessmen while in power, but has denied the charge.

Hasina alternated as prime minister with Khaleda Zia for 15 years until October 2006, when Khaleda’s second five-year term ended. Political violence followed, ended only when an army-backed interim administration took over in January 2007.

The new rulers declared a state of emergency, canceled a planned election and began a crackdown on corruption, arresting more than 170 political figures, including Khaleda and Hasina.

The government has promised new elections by the end of 2008, but both ex-premiers face corruption charges and will be disqualified from standing if convicted, legal experts say. Their parties would struggle without the two leaders.

Last week, the government made a surprise offer to allow Hasina, 60, and Khaleda, 62, to go abroad for medical treatment, but neither responded.

Yesterday, Hasina’s personal physicians appealed formally to the caretaker administration chief, Fakhruddin Ahmed, and to the Home Ministry to let her go to the United States for treatment.

Mudasser Ali, Pran Gopal Roy, Shaila Khatun and A.B.M. Abdullah made the request in a joint plea to Ahmed.

“We have explained the reasons why she needs to be sent abroad ... and believe the authorities will consider the appeal sympathetically,” senior physician Mudasser Ali told reporters.

The special anti-graft court earlier adjourned Hasina’s trial until tomorrow because she was sick, court officials said. Zillur Rahman, acting head of her Awami League, said prison authorities had told the court Hasina was ill.

A Dhaka newspaper said yesterday that her son, Sajib Wajed Joy, who is living in the United States, had also called for his mother to be released and sent abroad for treatment.

Zillur said the Awami League would not support Hasina going abroad “with any strings attached,” apparently suggesting that she must be allowed to return home if and when she wanted.

Khaleda’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party said the government’s offer looked like a revival of a previous plan to send the two ex-premiers into exile.

Months after taking over, the interim authority headed by former central bank chief Ahmed, was reportedly about to exile Khaleda, while for a time it had barred Hasina from returning home from a trip to the United States.