A court in Bangladesh has sentenced ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to five years in prison and her niece, British Labour Party lawmaker Tulip Siddiq, to two years in prison for corruption involving a government land project.
Rabiul Alam, the judge of Dhaka’s Special Judge’s Court, said on Monday that Hasina misused her power as prime minister while Siddiq was guilty of corruptly influencing her aunt in helping her mother get a piece of land in a government project.
Prosecutors said the land was unlawfully allocated through political influence and collusion with senior officials. They accused the defendants of abusing their authority to secure the roughly 13,610-square-foot (about 1,264 square metres) plot during Hasina’s time in office.
Siddiq’s mother, Sheikh Rehana, was given seven years in prison and was considered the prime participant in the case.
The verdict was delivered in absentia as Siddiq, her aunt Sheikh Hasina, and Hasina’s sister Sheikh Rehana — all co-accused in the case — were not present in court.
It involved the Purbachal New Town project in a suburb of Dhaka.
Other corruption cases
Hasina, who fled to neighbouring India in August 2024 at the height of an uprising against her government, was sentenced to death last month over her government’s violent crackdown on demonstrators during the protests.
Last week, she was handed a combined 21-year prison sentence in other corruption cases.
Siddiq, who resigned in January as the UK’s minister responsible for financial services and anti-corruption efforts following scrutiny over her financial ties to Hasina, has previously denied the allegations.
Britain does not currently have an extradition treaty with Bangladesh.
