Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: A court in Dhaka has sentenced former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in absentia to five years in prison and her niece, British MP Tulip Siddiq to two, for corruption in a case involving the acquisition of plots of land.
Rabiul Alam, the judge of Dhaka’s Special Judge’s Court, said on December 1 that Hasina – who has lived in exile in India since being toppled in an uprising last year – misused her power as premier in the transaction. Siddiq, an MP for the United Kingdom’s governing Labour party, was found guilty of corruptly influencing Hasina to help her mother – Sheikh Rehana, Hasina’s sister – and two siblings acquire the plot in a government project in Dhaka.
Rehana, who is reportedly no longer based in Bangladesh, was sentenced to seven years in prison in absentia, with the trio also fined 100,000 taka ($820) each, which would result in an additional six months in prison if they failed to pay, the court said.