A court in Dhaka sentenced Bangladesh’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina to five years in prison in absentia on Monday for corruption related to the allocation of government land plots.
Her niece, British Labour Party MP Tulip Siddiq, received a two-year sentence in the same case for influencing Hasina to secure plots for family members.
Hasina’s sister Sheikh Rehana was sentenced to seven years, while fourteen additional defendants received five-year terms.
Judge Rabiul Alam of Dhaka’s Special Judge’s Court ruled that Hasina had misused her authority as prime minister.
Prosecutors presented evidence of correspondence showing Siddiq had pressed Hasina’s principal secretary to allocate plots to her mother and siblings.
The prosecution tried Siddiq as a Bangladeshi citizen, citing possession of her passport, national identity card, and tax records, claims she has rejected, insisting she holds only British citizenship.
All three main defendants were fined approximately $820 each, with failure to pay adding six months to their sentences.
Hasina, living in exile in India since her government fell last year, and Siddiq did not appoint defense lawyers and have dismissed the charges as politically driven.
Hasina’s Awami League party called the verdict “entirely predictable” and described the anti-corruption body as a political tool.
Siddiq previously described the case as a “politically motivated smear” and the latest ruling as “a complete farce.”
Britain’s Labour Party stated it could not recognise the judgment, citing lack of fair process.
No extradition treaty exists between Bangladesh and the United Kingdom, though prosecutors plan to contact British authorities through diplomatic channels.