Bangladesh court sentences Sheikh Hasina to 5-year jail term in land scam case

A Bangladesh court on Monday sentenced ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina to five years of imprisonment in a land scam case.

Judge Md Rabiul Alam of the Special Judge’s Court-4 of Dhaka also handed down a seven-year jail term to Hasina’s sister Sheikh Rehana, and a two-year term to her niece, British parliamentarian Tulip Siddiq, in the same case, The Daily Star newspaper reported.

This was the fourth verdict involving Hasina in graft cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the report said.

The ACC filed six separate cases between January 12 and 14 with its Dhaka Integrated District Office-1 over alleged irregularities in the allocation of plots under the Purbachal New Town project.

According to the anti-graft body, Hasina, in collusion with senior Rajuk officials, unlawfully secured six plots, each measuring 10 kathas (7,200 square feet), in the diplomatic zone of Sector 27 of the Purbachal New Town project for herself and her relatives, including her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy and daughter Saima Wazed Putul, despite their ineligibility under existing regulations, The Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported.

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) is the state-run agency responsible for monitoring compliance from planning to construction of government-aided buildings in Bangladesh.

Charges were framed against 29 people on July 31, including Hasina, Rehana, Joy, Putul, and Tulip, in their respective cases.

On November 27, Hasina was sentenced to 21 years’ rigorous imprisonment, seven years in each of the three cases filed over the Purbachal plot scam. Joy and Putul were co-accused in separate cases—one each—and were given five years’ imprisonment.