Sheikh Hasina and Family Members Sentenced in Bangladesh Corruption Case: Former PM Receives 5-Year Prison Term

Bangladesh's former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina faces additional legal challenges as a court delivers new sentences against her and family members in a corruption case.

A Bangladesh court has issued prison sentences to ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana, and her niece Tulip Siddiq, a British Member of Parliament, related to allegations involving plot allocations in the Purbachal New Town Project in Dhaka.

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) ruling sentenced Sheikh Hasina to five years imprisonment, while her sister Sheikh Rehana received a seven-year sentence. Rehana had accompanied Hasina during the violent protests that occurred last year.

British MP Tulip Siddiq, who received a two-year prison sentence, had previously criticized Bangladesh's legal proceedings as "politically motivated" and described herself as "collateral damage" in the country's political conflict. Siddiq had served as a minister until her resignation in January.

The Awami League has strongly condemned the legal proceedings, calling them "entirely predictable" and describing the ACC as "a political mechanism used for political ends by desperate, unelected men."

In their statement, the Awami League emphasized: "The allegations against Sheikh Hasina, her sister, and many others, including members of her immediate and wider family, are firmly denied. No persuasive evidence of corruption was heard at the ACC, because none exists. Defendants did not have proper legal representation at the ACC and were judged in absentia."

The party further criticized the process, stating it "fails to pass any reasonable test of judicial fairness - a point that has been made forcefully by both local and international legal experts."

These new sentences come after Sheikh Hasina was previously sentenced to 21 years imprisonment—seven years each in three separate corruption cases—by Dhaka's Special Judge Court-5 on November 27. Additionally, on November 17, Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal sentenced her to death, along with former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal.

The ACC had filed six separate corruption cases in January concerning plot allocations. Sheikh Hasina's children, son Sajeeb Wazed Joy and daughter Saima Wazed Putul, are also named as defendants in these cases.

The Awami League has accused the Interim Government's Chief Adviser of using "the ACC as a smokescreen to distract attention from his own governance failings."