Dhaka – Former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her son and daughter were sentenced to jail for their alleged involvement in graft related to allocation of land in a government project, court officials said on Thursday.
Judge Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun of Dhaka’s Fifth Special Judges’ Court convicted Hasina in three separate cases filed by the state-run Anti-Corruption Commission, convicting her 21 years (seven years each) in jail.
The court sentenced Hasina’s son Sajib Wazed Joy to five years in prison in one case while her daughter Saima Wazed Putul to five years in another case, according to Mainul Hasan Lipon, an ACC counsel.
All trials are being held in absentia.
Hasina has been exiled in India since she fled the country on August 5, 2024 in the face of a mass uprising. Joy is living in the United States, and Putul, currently an official at the World Health Organization with reportedly on leave for indefinite period stationed in New Delhi.
They were charged for obtaining three land plots, each measuring 10 kathas, in a new government settlement project near Dhaka concealing information that they own residential facilities in the capital, according to the prosecution.
They “concealed information, broke the law, and through corruption” obtained allocations for the plots in the Purbachal New Town project, the prosecution argued.
On November 17, Hasina was sentenced to death by a special court in Dhaka for her involvement in the violent suppression of last year’s mass uprising that ousted her after 15 years in office.
Following Hasina’s ouster, the anti-corruption commission in January filed six cases against Hasina and her family accusing them of obtaining land allocation through abuse of power and irregularities.
Of the six cases, in which Hasina was made common accused, three were settled on Thursday at the trial court.
In the other cases, being proceeded in another court, Hasina’s sister Sheikh Rehana, a British MP niece Tulip Siddiq, Azmina Siddiq, and nephew Radwan Mujib Sidiq were made accused. These cases are pending for judgement. A number of government officials involved in the land project was also made accused in these cases.
