KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 — Former Bangladeshi envoy Mohamed Khairuzzaman, who had been detained by Immigration authorities last week, has been released pursuant to the court order his lawyers won yesterday halting his deportation.

In confirming his release, lawyer Ngeow Chow Ying said her client was freed at the Immigration Department headquarters in Putrajaya earlier at 3.36pm today.

"Yes, he is in good health,” Ngeow said when contacted by Malay Mail here.

She also said Mohamed expressed an overwhelming sense of relief following his release and wanted to meet up with his family as soon as possible.

Prior to his release, his lawyers had obtained an interim order from the High Court yesterday to prevent the Immigration Department from going through with his deportation.

The former diplomat’s legal team said he was a political asylum seeker with a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees card and had not committed any immigration violations, and argued that his detention was unlawful.

Khairuzzaman, who had been residing here as a refugee for almost a decade, was arrested on February 10 morning from his home in Ampang here.

While he is wanted in Bangladesh for undisclosed reasons, his wife, Rieta Rahman, had contended that his arrest was politically motivated by the Bangladeshi government.

Bangladeshi media reported that Khairuzzaman, 65, was among the many names implicated in the 1975 Jail Killing case in Bangladesh at the height of a political war, which saw four prominent figures of political party Awami League killed.

He was later acquitted and appointed as a high commissioner to Malaysia in 2007, before being ordered back to Dhaka after Awami League came into power in 2009.

Fearing his safety and targeted persecution, Khairuzzaman reportedly sought refugee status and continued living here.