Dhaka, Bangladesh: A Dhaka court on Thursday sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to 21 years in prison and her two children—son Sajib Wajed Joy and daughter Saima Wazed Putul—to five years each for alleged irregularities in the allocation of plots under a government housing project. The trial was conducted in absentia, as Hasina is currently in India.
Dhaka Special Judge Court-5, led by Judge Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun, ruled that the plots were allocated to Hasina without proper application and in a manner that exceeded legal jurisdiction. Hasina received seven years’ imprisonment for each of the three cases, totaling 21 years.
Apart from the Hasina family, 20 other individuals were also tried, including former junior housing minister Sharif Ahmed and various officials of the Housing Ministry and Rajdhani Unyan Kartripakkah. All except one were sentenced to varying prison terms, while the lone acquitted defendant was a junior ministry officer.
The Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commission had filed six cases against Hasina and her associates between January 12–14 and submitted charge sheets on March 10. The court delivered verdicts on three of these cases on Thursday. Security was tightened around the court complex in the old part of Dhaka as the judgment came shortly after a special tribunal sentenced Hasina to death on charges of committing crimes against humanity on November 17.
Hasina’s Awami League government was overthrown on August 5 last year following a student-led uprising called the ‘July Uprising’. Shortly after, Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus was invited from Paris to assume charge of the interim government as chief adviser. The Dhaka court’s ruling underscores the ongoing political and legal turbulence in Bangladesh, especially regarding the former government’s alleged misconduct in housing and other state projects.
