Monday’s courtroom drama in Dhaka culminated in a 10-year conviction for Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’s deposed Prime Minister, in the notorious Purbachal land plot corruption affair. The sentence extended to her British MP niece Tulip Siddiq with four years, courtesy of Dhaka Special Judge Court-4’s Judge Mohammad Rabiul Alam.
Prosecutor Mir Ahmad Ali Salam of the ACC laid bare the graft in plot distributions. Twelve defendants, encompassing Hasina’s relatives Radwan and Azmina Siddiq, mirrored her 10-year fate in one charge. The siblings took seven years elsewhere, one more got two across cases.
Five additional convicts landed five years per The Daily Star, as courts slapped 1 lakh Taka fines on 22, including Hasina – plus six months jail if dodged.
Echoing earlier blows, a December 1 ruling gave Hasina five years for irregularities, Rehana seven, Tulip two. November 27’s trio of cases tallied 21 years.
Unbowed, Hasina’s family statement repudiated the charges: ‘Total denial of corruption claims – all stem from foes’ malice under an illegitimate interim regime bossing the ACC with shoddy, unilateral evidence, barring fair trial.’
‘It’s infuriating how they rope in non-political innocents,’ they added, targeting Yunus’s government.
Launched to house Dhaka’s booming population, Purbachal allegedly favored Hasina loyalists with cheap elite plots, igniting public fury. Her 2024 ouster via protests opened floodgates to such probes.
Analysts see this as pivotal in purging entrenched corruption, though detractors decry it as revenge justice. With Hasina abroad and appeals pending, Bangladesh hurtles toward elections amid vows of cleaner governance, testing the judiciary’s mettle in turbulent times.