DHAKA, June 6: A day after landing his wife in court on charges of theft, former Bangladesh president Hussain Mohammad Ershad flew out of the country on Monday, denouncing the mother of his only son as a bigamist.

“She cheated me. She has got two husbands,” the one-time military strongman, now 77, told a large crowd of reporters at Dhaka’s Zia International airport en route to Saudi Arabia.

Mr Ershad said he believed his wife was a bigamist because she had named her former husband as her spouse in a 2002 passport application.

“She didn’t divorce her former husband ... I divorced her on June 3,” he added, without giving details of any official divorce proceedings.

Mr Ershad’s secretary said the former president believed his second wife had not divorced her British husband, Peter Wilson.

“He (Ershad) divorced her on Friday,” the secretary said.

On Sunday, Bidisha Ershad, 35, collapsed in court when she appeared to face allegations of theft, criminal damage, and making threats to Mr Ershad’s life.

Police arrested her on Saturday after Mr Ershad accused her of stealing money and ornaments, damaging property, and threatening to kill him.

Her lawyers said the second wife of the former president was the victim of a ‘deep conspiracy’.

Television newscasts on Saturday showed dramatic scenes of her threatening to throw herself from an upper storey of her apartment building before police managed to take her into custody.

Their deteriorating relationship has been making headlines in recent weeks in Bangladeshi newspapers.

On Thursday, Mr Ershad, who ruled Bangladesh from 1982 to 1990, expelled his wife from his Jatiya Party, the third largest party in parliament.

The couple married five years ago after a long affair. As well as a young son with Mr Ershad, Bidisha Ershad has two sons with her former husband Wilson. —AFP