A court in Bangladesh on Monday sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to a total of 10 years’ imprisonment in two separate corruption cases linked to alleged irregularities in the allocation of land under a government housing scheme. The verdicts were delivered by Dhaka’s Special Judge’s Court and relate to accusations that Hasina misused her official position to influence the distribution of residential plots.
The court awarded the 79-year-old deposed leader 10 years of rigorous imprisonment for exercising undue influence in the allocation of plots under the Rajuk New Town Project in Purbachal, located on the outskirts of Dhaka. The case involved the alleged allotment of residential land to several individuals, including her niece Tulip Siddiq, who is a British lawmaker and a former minister in the United Kingdom.
Alongside Hasina, members of her extended family were also sentenced. Judge Robiul Alam handed down prison terms to two of her nieces and a nephew in connection with the same case. Tulip Siddiq’s younger sister, Azaman Siddiq, and her brother, Radwan Mujib Siddiq Bobby, were each sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment. These convictions, like most others in the case, followed trials conducted in absentia, as the accused were not physically present in court.
The verdicts were pronounced at approximately 12.30 pm. Of the 16 individuals named as accused in the case, only one—Khurshid Alam, a senior official of Rajuk, the authority responsible for land allocation—was present in court and tried in person when the judgment was delivered. All other accused were tried without being physically present.
In addition to Hasina’s relatives, several other individuals were sentenced to prison terms of five years each. These included a former junior housing minister, a former secretary of the housing ministry, a former chairman of Rajuk, and other officials associated with the state-run body. While delivering the verdict, the judge stated that the judicial process was not hindered by the physical absence of the accused, remarking that the trial proceeded irrespective of where in the world the accused were located.
Hasina’s now-disbanded political party, the Awami League, dismissed the court’s decision as entirely predictable, describing the cases as false and politically motivated. The party alleged that the charges were fabricated by the interim administration led by Muhammad Yunus, and reiterated its earlier claim that the legal actions against Hasina and her family were malicious in intent.
Tulip Siddiq, responding to the verdict, criticised the entire process as deeply flawed and farcical from beginning to end. Speaking to the BBC, she said she was baffled by the proceedings, stating that she had never received any formal summons, charge sheet, or official communication from Bangladeshi authorities, despite what she described as the circulation of malicious allegations against her for more than a year. She added that she was easily reachable as a sitting parliamentarian and had already engaged legal counsel in both the UK and Bangladesh. Describing her experience, she said it felt like being trapped in a “Kafkaesque nightmare.”
Sheikh Hasina’s government was removed from power following a wave of student-led violent protests known as the July Uprising on August 5, 2024. Since that upheaval, the interim government has initiated a series of wide-ranging legal cases against the former prime minister, her close associates, and members of her family.
Earlier, a special tribunal sentenced Hasina—who is currently in exile in India—to death on charges of crimes against humanity, alleging the use of brutal measures to suppress the uprising. Separately, acting on complaints filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission, a court on November 27 had already sentenced Hasina to a cumulative 21 years in prison in another case. In that matter, her children Sajeeb Wazed Joy and Saima Wazed Putul were each given five-year prison sentences in a separate case also linked to Rajuk plot allocations.
