



She was immediately taken to a special jail in the old part of the city where she would have to remain until her lawyers file an appeal.

"This is a false and staged case. No way we will accept this verdict," BNP secretary general Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told AFP after the hearing.

Zia's lawyer Khandkar Mahbub Hossain said the ruling was "political vengeance" and would be overturned by a higher court.

Violence erupted in major cities across Bangladesh at news of the guilty verdict, with BNP supporters clashing with police and activists from the ruling party.

Police fired rubber bullets at demonstrators in the northeastern city of Sylhet, spokesman Abdul Wahab told AFP. At least four people have been injured in the clashes, he added.

Police said they arrested at least seven BNP officials in the port city of Chittagong, including the local head of the party, after opposition supporters scuffled with police.

Ahead of the hearing in Dhaka police fired tear gas at thousands of opposition activists who defied heavy security to escort the car taking Zia to the magistrates court.

The private television station Somoy said at least five police officers had been injured and two motorcycles torched during the clashes that broke out several kilometres from the court premises.

Authorities have for days been on high alert for protests in the tense city, where political demonstrations by Zia's centre-right BNP and its Islamist allies in 2014 and 2015 left nearly 200 people dead.



Zia, 72, is a former ally turned arch-foe of Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Her party boycotted 2014 polls in which Hasina was re-elected but is expected to contest the upcoming general election.






"This is an attempt to use the court against me, in an effort to sideline me from politics and elections and to isolate me from the people," she told a packed news conference on Wednesday.

Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged the government to stop what it called "arbitrary arrests and detentions".

"The Bangladesh government's claims to be open and democratic ring hollow as it cracks down on political dissent," said the group's Asia director Brad Adams.




"Dhaka is effectively cut off, people in panic," read the front-page headline of the Bengali-language newspaper Prothom Alo.