TEHRAN Former prime minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairperson Benazir Bhutto on Monday lamented the 'torture' of her spouse, suspended senator Asif Ali Zardari in jail, according to a report of IRNA from Islamabad.

Zardari, jailed for the last eight years, is presently undergoing medical treatment at a hospital in Islamabad.

The National Accountability Bureau has now initiated a case of corruption against him and the other day he was presented before the accountability court, in the ancient Attock Fort, over 80 kilometers west of Islamabad.

Later Bhutto's party alleged that he was tortured by bringing him out of the hospital in a stretcher and taking him to the court in tight security only to find the judge adjourning the hearing without any proper proceedings.

"I have spent eight years in opposition, Asif Zardari has spent those eight years behind bars. He nearly lost his life under torture," Benazir Bhutto said in a statement.

"No one can give back to him the years of liberty lost, or of seeing his children grow up," she exclaimed.

She alleged that all this was done to her spouse to "intimidate and blackmail" her.

Benazir Bhutto said she expected her "critics" to "be able to defend citizens' rights under the Constitution."

She also called for investigation of "a handful of corrupt judges who have slaughtered justice just to please the rulers."

Recently, the PPP claimed that the judgment against Benazir Bhutto during the tenure of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif by a court was delivered under pressure from the then government.

An earlier report in a London-based newspaper had said that intelligence officials had been tapping the telephone of the judge hearing the case against Benazir Bhutto.

The PPP has also demanded an investigation into this matter, IRNA said.