A Dhaka court on Thursday sentenced deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina to 21 years in prison in three cases tied to the Purbachal plot scam.
Judge Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun said the terms will run consecutively.
Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and daughter, Saima Wazed Putul, each received five-year sentences in one case. Nineteen other defendants were convicted, while former administrative officer Saiful Islam Sarkar was acquitted.
Exactly two years before she lost power, on August 3, 2022, Hasina allocated a 10-katha (7,200 square feet) plot to herself in Purbachal’s Diplomatic Zone. Twenty-eight days later, Wazed — who at the time served as her computer tech affairs adviser — was allotted a plot in the same zone. Putul received a plot 11 days after Joy, according to the details of the case.
“He was astonished that a four-time Prime Minister could falsely acquire public property by providing false affidavits and suppressing information,” said Khan Mohammad Mainul Hasan Lipon, attorney for the Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), speaking about the judge’s shock at the graft.
Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commissions sought a harsher, life in prison, sentence against Hasina’s family, but was unsuccessful.
Wazed lives in the United States while Putul’s whereabouts are unknown.
Hasina, now in India, was previously sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal for crimes against humanity during last year’s July uprising.
The Anti-Corruption Commission alleged she unlawfully obtained six plots in the diplomatic zone for herself and her relatives.