DHAKA : Author on Trial

Almost certainly, the courtroom will be packed and the dock will be empty. But the most celebrated trial in the history of Bangladesh is supposed to begin Saturday all the same.

Feminist writer Taslima Nasrin, who fled her homeland to Europe last August to escape arrest and threats on her life, is the defendant, but she is expected to remain in self-imposed exile.

The charge: deliberately and maliciously damaging the religious sentiments of the country’s Muslim majority by asking for a revision of the Koran. Nasrin denies making the remarks being held against her.

Tempers are rising in the streets. A leader of the militant Islamist United Action Council has demanded that the government have her extradited and condemned to death.