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A Bangladeshi court sentenced ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to 10 years in prison for abusing her position to allocate state-owned land to her relatives, the state news agency BSS reported. Three of her relatives were also sentenced, including her niece, who is a lawmaker in the United Kingdom.
Monday’s conviction centers on two government plots within the Purbachal New Town Project, a planned residential and commercial hub east of Dhaka. The plots, each measuring 10 kathas (about 7,200 square feet), were awarded to Radwan Mujib Siddiq and Azmina Siddiq, who were each sentenced to seven years in prison.
Hasina’s niece, British Member of Parliament Tulip Siddiq, received a total of four years in prison for allegedly influencing her aunt to secure the plots for her siblings. The court also imposed fines of 100,000 taka (about $816) on each defendant.
A spokesperson for the Labour Party, of which Siddiq is a member, said in an emailed statement to OCCRP that the party “cannot recognize this judgment.” The spokesperson said Siddiq “has not had access to a fair legal process in this case and has never been informed of the details of the charges against her, despite repeated requests made to the Bangladeshi authorities through her legal team.”
The ruling is the latest in a series of legal actions against Hasina since a student-led uprising in July 2024 ended her 15-year rule. She has been living in India since fleeing Bangladesh in August 2024. In November, Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal sentenced her to death in absentia for crimes against humanity, convicting her of orchestrating a violent crackdown on protesters that killed at least 1,500 people and injured more than 25,000.
The daughter of founding President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina served as prime minister from 1996 to 2001 and again from 2009 until her ouster, becoming the country’s longest-serving leader. Her administration faced long-standing allegations of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and widespread corruption.
Estimates of public funds lost to corruption under her rule range from $17 billion to $30 billion, according to various assessments. The alleged misuse of public money fueled public anger in a country where nearly 19% of the population — about 173 million people — live in poverty, according to the World Bank.
