Ex-Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina sentenced to 21 years in prison in corruption cases

A Dhaka court sentenced former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina to 21 years in prison in three corruption cases linked to the Purbachal New City Project. The verdict follows an earlier ICT ruling sentencing her to death, which she termed politically motivated.

Dhaka: A Bangladesh court on Thursday sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to 21 years of imprisonment in three corruption cases filed by the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) over the irregularities in the allocation of plots under the Purbachal New City Project.

The latest verdict comes just days after Bangladesh’s ICT on November 17 pronounced a death sentence for Hasina after it found her guilty on the charges of crimes against humanity related to the demonstrations in July of last year. It also convicted two of Hasina’s top aides, sentencing former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal to death and former Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who turned state witness, to five years’ imprisonment.

---

Meanwhile, on Thursday afternoon, Judge Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun of Dhaka Special Judge’s Court-5 announced the verdict in the afternoon.

Hasina was handed seven years’ imprisonment in each of the three cases, while her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy and daughter Saima Wazed Putul were sentenced to five years each in prison in one of the three cases.

Of the 20 other accused, 19 received varying prison terms, and one was acquitted in all three cases, Bangladeshi leading newspaper The Daily Star reported

Meanwhile, security was tightened at the entrance to the Sessions Court in Dhaka ahead of the high-profile judgment, with additional police checkpoints, and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel were also deployed to maintain order.

“In addition to our regular members, an extra two platoons of police have been deployed. Two platoons of BGB personnel are on duty. Furthermore, local police and RAB members are patrolling the periphery,” Bangladesh’s leading newspaper The Business Standard quoted Miah Mohammad Ashis Bin Hasan, Deputy Commissioner of the Prosecution Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, as saying.

Following the controversial ICT verdict, Hasina alleged that the judgment announced against her came from a “rigged tribunal” set up and presided over by the unelected interim government led by Muhammad Yunus, which lacks a democratic mandate. The former PM termed the ruling as biased and politically motivated.

In a statement, the former PM stated, “In their distasteful call for the death penalty, they reveal the brazen and murderous intent of extremist figures within the interim government to remove Bangladesh’s last elected Prime Minister, and to nullify the Awami League as a political force. Millions of Bangladeshis toiling under the chaotic, violent and socially regressive administration of Dr Mohammad Yunus will not be fooled by this attempt to short-change them of their democratic rights.”