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A court in Bangladesh sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to 10 years in prison on Monday, and her niece, Tulip Siddiq, who is a UK lawmaker, to four years, in two cases involving a government township project near the capital, Dhaka.
Judge Mohammed Rabiul Alam of the Special Judge’s Court-4 also handed down seven-year prison terms to another niece of Hasina’s, Azmina Siddiq, and nephew, Radwan Mujib Siddiq.
The country’s official corruption watchdog filed the cases alleging that Hasina colluded with government officials to illegally secure six plots in the Purbachal New Town Project, near Dhaka, for herself and her family members despite their ineligibility under government regulations.
The verdicts came as the interim government, headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, prepares for 12 February elections. Hasina’s former ruling Awami League party has been banned from taking part following her ouster in August 2024.
Both Hasina and Tulip Siddiq were sentenced earlier in December in similar cases and have denounced the verdict, claiming it has no merit.
Siddiq said she had obtained no land from the government during her aunt’s 15-year rule, as she is not a Bangladeshi citizen. But prosecutors accuse the UK Labour Party lawmaker of influencing her aunt to provide her mother and two siblings with land in the project, an allegation Siddiq rejected outright.
Hasina was previously convicted in four other cases over corruption in the project and faced charges of misuse of power. In those cases, the former Bangladeshi premier was sentenced to 26 years in prison, while her son, Sajeeb Wazed, and daughter, Saima Wazed, received five years each.
Hasina’s younger sister, Sheikh Rehana, who fled to India on a helicopter with Hasina following her leaving office, was sentenced to seven years.
All of Hasina’s immediate relatives are currently residing abroad and are unlikely to return to Bangladesh to serve their sentences.
Hasina has been in exile in India since 5 August 2024, when she was ousted in a student-led mass uprising, ending her 15-year reign.
She had been sentenced to death on charges of crimes against humanity as hundreds of protesters were killed in a brutal suppression of the demonstrations, which prosecutors say were ordered by the former prime minister.
She denounced the sentence and the trial process she was subjected to, calling the special tribunal arranged to try her a “kangaroo court”.
Additional sources • AP