Hasina gets 21 years jail for corruption cases

A Bangladesh court on Thursday sentenced deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina to 21 years in jail in three corruption cases related to irregularities in allocations of land in a Government housing project. Judge Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun of Dhaka Special Judge Court-5 sentenced 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. The judge also fined Hasina 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 the housing project near the capital. Joy and Putul were fined Taka one lakh each, or one month more in case of default.

“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. The judgement came 10 days after Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia by a special tribunal for “crimes against humanity” over her Government’s brutal crackdown on student-led protests last year.

Hasina maintains the charges against her are “biased and politically motivated”. Hasina has been living in India since she fled Bangladesh on August 5 last year in the face of the massive protests that toppled her Awami League Government. She was earlier declared a fugitive by a court.

Authorities tightened security in and around the court complex in the old part of Dhaka ahead of Thursday’s verdict. Apart from the Hasina 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 except one, all were sentenced to varying prison terms.

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. The Anti-Corruption Commission 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 the three cases and issued arrest warrants against the accused. A total of 29 witnesses testified in the cases. A day earlier, Foreign Affairs Adviser M Touhid Hossain said Bangladesh expects a response from New Delhi to its earlier request seeking the extradition of Hasina, as the “situation is different now” with the judicial process completed and the former premier convicted.

India 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 have fled the country since the collapse of the Hasina regime.