Mick Hartley

Efforts to free Dr Humayra Abedin, with the help of the recent Forced Marriage Act, have paid off:

An NHS doctor who was held captive by her family in Bangladesh for four months while they plotted her forced marriage must be allowed to return to her home in Britain, a court in Dhaka ruled today.

Doctor Humayra Abedin, 33, who is training to become a GP at Whipps Cross Hospital in east London, was allegedly beaten, drugged and held against her will after being duped into flying to Bangladesh on August 3 when family members claimed that her mother was seriously ill.

Dr Abedin, who is an only child, has a Hindu boyfriend in London, which angered her Muslim family, according to reports. They were preparing to marry her to a Muslim stranger, it is alleged.

Dr Abedin was later able to make a small number of secret telephone calls. The friend said: "She was telling me they were beating her up, she was locked in her room and she was not allowed to go out of the room.

"She said her mum was always with her, even when she was going for a shower. They were telling her she was not mentally well and they were forcing her to take sedatives."

Today, Judge Syed Mahmod Hossain ordered Humayra Abedin's parents to return her passport, driver's licence and credit card.

"It perplexes me as to why the parents kept her confined and interfered with her personal life. I am shocked," he said.

A friend of Dr Abedin, who had lived with the trainee doctor in East Ham, sounded the alarm after receiving a text on August 11. "PLEASE HELP ME. My life is in danger. They have locked me in house. My job is at stake. They are making my life hell," the message said….

The trainee doctors' boyfriend, a 44-year-old Hindu Bangladeshi software engineer, had alleged that Dr Abedin's Muslim parents had bound and gagged her, held her captive in a house in Dhaka, and pleaded with her to marry a Muslim. He said that death threats had been issued against his family in Bangladesh.

"They told her they'd prefer her to die than return to London," he told reporters.

A Metropolitan Police investigation was launched in June following allegations that the doctor's mother and uncle tried to hold her captive in London.

Last week, the High Court in London issued an injunction under the new Forced Marriage Act, demanding that Dr Abedin be allowed to return to Britain. Though the Act is not enforceable in Bangladesh it was hoped it would place pressure on the Bangladeshi authorities.

It worked.

London's High Court had ordered her return to the UK under the new Forced Marriage Act and the High Court in Dhaka has now ruled she must be freed.

Lawyer Sara Hossain, representing Dr Abedin, said her client wanted to return to the UK and her family had been ordered to return her passport.

She said: "The court has ordered that Humayra Abedin should be able to return to the UK in accordance with her wishes.

"She has very clearly stated that she wants to return to the UK immediately, which is the place where she works as a doctor and where she lives and has lived for the last five years."

Ms Hossain added: "We're delighted with the result, the rights of a Bangladeshi woman have been protected as they should be.

"Dr Abedin looks very relieved, she's a very brave woman."

Dr Abedin's parents had been ordered to appear at Dhaka's High Court with their daughter on Sunday.

She was later released into the custody of the court and handed over to the British High Commission. Dr Abedin is expected to return to the UK on Monday.