DHAKA: Mahfuza Akhter Kiron, Asia’s female member of the governing council of world football federation FIFA, has been placed in jail in her native Bangladeshi authorities allegedly defaming the country’s prime minister.

Kiron defeated Australia’s Moya Dodd to win election on behalf of the Asian Football Confederation in 2017.

The BBC has reported that she was detained for saying, on a television talk show, that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had been neglecting football in favour of cricket.

Her comments were then denounced for defamation Abul Hasan Chowdhury, a former foreign affairs minister, and she was detained and then denied bail.

The defamation action claimed that her comments about the prime minister had embarrassed the nation.

Sheikh Hasina is the longest serving prime minister in Bangladeshi history after securing a third consecutive term in office last December.

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