Dhaka – A court on Monday sentenced former prime minister Sheikh Hasina to 10 more years in prison in two corruption cases involving the allocation of government land plots to her nephew and niece.
Judge Rabiul Islam of the Dhaka-based court also convicted and sentenced Hasina’s niece, British MP Tulip Siddiq, to four years in prison for allegedly influencing the allocation process for her brother, Radwan Mujib Siddiq Bobby, and sister, Azmina Siddiq Rupanti.
Khan Mohammad Moinul Hasan, a lawyer for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) which brought the cases, said Hasina received five-year sentences in each case, totaling 10 years. Bobby and Rupanti were each sentenced to seven years in prison.
The defendants were accused of abuse of power and submitting false asset information to secure two 669-square-meter plots in Dhaka’s Purbachal New Town Project.
The court fined each convict 100,000 taka per case and ordered an additional six months’ imprisonment if the fines are not paid. It also canceled the allotment of the two plots.
Seventeen of the eighteen accused in the broader cases were tried in absentia. The court sentenced thirteen individuals, mostly former public servants, to five years in prison in each case.
One defendant, tried in person while in custody, received a one-year sentence.
Those receiving five-year terms include former officials from the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (RAJUK) housing authority, former additional secretaries, and former state minister for Housing and Public Works Sharif Ahmed.
The only accused tried in person, former RAJUK member Mohammad Khurshid Alam, was sentenced to one year in prison and fined 100,000 taka.
The ACC filed the case on January 13, 2025, and submitted the charge sheet on March 10, 2025. A total of 31 witnesses testified during the trial, which concluded on January 5.
In November, a separate court sentenced Hasina to 21 years in jail in three other graft cases related to the same housing project. She was also previously handed a death penalty by a special court for her involvement in the violent suppression of mass protests that ousted her in 2024. She has been in exile in India since fleeing the country on August 5, 2024.
Tulip Siddiq, who was sentenced to two years in a separate case in December, has denied all allegations. She resigned as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s anti-corruption minister in January amid controversy over her links to her aunt’s government, which was widely reported in the British media.
