The 60-year-old Awami League chief, who suffered ear injuries in a 2004 grenade attack on a party rally, was examined by doctors at a makeshift jail in the parliament complex.

"If she is not sent abroad for treatment she could become permanently deaf as her proper treatment is not possible here," leading ENT specialist Pran Gopal Dutta told reporters after her medical examination on Sunday.

Dutta said Hasina had become "totally deaf" in her left ear and she hears "very little" in her right ear.

"At present she tries to understand others' voice by reading the lips," the doctor said.

The doctors visited her after she appeared in a special court in the same compound for her indictment in a second

corruption charge.

Lawyers and witnesses said she looked "pale" as she entered the courtroom.

"If she is not feeling well she may leave the court, but the hearing will continue as we have to complete the trial in a limited timeframe," judge Firoz Alam said as Hasina's counsels pleaded for deferring the hearing because of her illness.