A Bangladesh court on Thursday handed ousted prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, 21 years in jail for land grab and corruption amid tight security in and around the court complex in the old part of Dhaka.
The sentence comes 10 days after the deposed leader was sentenced to death in absentia by a special tribunal for “crimes against humanity” over her government’s ruthless crackdown on student-led protests last year that led to several deaths.
Judge Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun of Dhaka Special Judge Court-5 sentenced the 78-year-old former premier to seven years each in three cases of corruption in the Rajuk New Town Project in Purbachal, totalling 21 years.
The judge said Hasina would serve them consecutively, and also imposed a fine of Taka one lakh in each case, or 18 months more in prison if she failed to submit the amount.
Judge Mamun also sentenced Hasina’s son, Sajib Wajed Joy, and daughter, Saima Wazed Putul, to five years’ imprisonment each in the cases filed against them in irregularities in the housing project allotment. Both were fined Taka one lakh each, or one month more in case of default.
Also Read: Dhaka presses India for Hasina’s extradition
“The plot was allotted to Sheikh Hasina without any application and in a manner that exceeded the legally authorised jurisdiction,” Judge Mamun said while delivering the judgment.
Apart from Hasina and her family, 20 others, including former junior minister for housing, Sharif Ahmed, and officials of the housing ministry and Rajdhani Unyan Kartripakkah, were tried in the cases, and all sentenced, except one.
The man who was acquitted is a junior officer of the ministry. Only one of the accused faced the trial in person, and he was sentenced to three years.
Hasina, who has been living in exile in India since she fled Bangladesh on August 5 last year after violent protests broke out that toppled her Awami League government, maintains the charges against her are “biased and politically motivated”.
She was earlier declared a fugitive by a court.
The Anti-Corruption Commission in the country had filed six cases between January 12 and 14 and submitted charge-sheets in all of them on March 10. On July 31, the court framed charges in three cases and issued arrest warrants against the accused. A total of 29 witnesses testified in the cases.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s Foreign Affairs Adviser, M Touhid Hossain, said the country expects a response from New Delhi to its request seeking the extradition of Hasina, as the “situation is different now” with the judicial process completed and the former premier convicted.
India, in its reply on Wednesday, said it is examining the interim government’s request to extradite Hasina and asserted that it is “committed to ensuring the best interests of the people of that country”.
Most Awami League leaders have either been arrested or fled the country since the collapse of the Hasina regime.
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