Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled the country on 5 August last year following the July uprising, and members of her family now face a staggering 687 cases filed over a wide range of charges, including murder and corruption.
Besides Hasina, those named include her sister Sheikh Rehana; her daughter Saima Wazed Putul; her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy; Rehana’s daughter and UK Labour MP Tulip Rizwana Siddiq; Rehana’s other daughter Azmina Siddiq; and her son Radwan Mujib Siddiq Bobby.
Officials at Police Headquarters and the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) said that after the student-led movement that toppled her government, 663 criminal cases were filed against Hasina alone. The ACC has lodged a further seven cases.
In addition, four cases are still under investigation at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), while more than fifty additional complaints have been submitted.
Police records show that the charges against Hasina include serious allegations such as murder, corruption, extortion, abduction, sedition and crimes against humanity.
On 17 November, the ICT sentenced her to death in a crimes-against-humanity case. On 27 November, another court sentenced her to 21 years in prison, and on Monday she received a further five-year sentence.
Cases against members of the Hasina family
Hasina’s sister Sheikh Rehana faces three cases filed primarily by the ACC. These relate to allegations of abusing influence to obtain a plot under the Rajuk Purbachal New Town Project.
On Monday, a special judge’s court in Dhaka sentenced her to seven years in prison and fined her Tk1 lakh in one such 10-katha plot corruption case. Failure to pay the fine will result in an additional six months’ imprisonment.
A total of five cases has been filed against Hasina’s daughter Putul, three of which have already resulted in convictions. Three separate cases were lodged against her over alleged corruption in the allocation of Rajuk plots under the Purbachal New Town Project. The court delivered its verdicts on 27 November, sentencing her to five years’ imprisonment in each case.
The ACC has also filed two further cases against her. One accuses her of embezzling around Tk448 crore in donations collected under the name of the Shuchona Foundation. The other involves allegations of fraud and abuse of authority in connection with her employment at the World Health Organization.
Two corruption cases have been filed against Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and he has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and fined Tk1 lakh in each. Failure to pay the fines will result in six months’ additional imprisonment per case.
The ACC had filed six cases in total regarding irregularities in plot allocations under the Purbachal New Town Project. Joy was named as an accused in two of them.
On 27 November, Judge Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun of Dhaka’s Special Judge Court-5 delivered the verdicts.
Two separate cases are currently under trial against Sheikh Rehana’s son, Radwan Mujib Siddiq Bobby, and her daughter, Azmina Siddique, over similar allegations of obtaining plots illegally under the Purbachal New Town Project. Witness testimony in these cases is underway.
AIG (Media) of Police Headquarters AHM Shahadat Hossain and ACC Deputy Director (Public Relations) Md Aktarul Islam confirmed the information.
The ACC also filed a case against Rehana’s daughter, British MP Tulip Siddiq, over alleged irregularities and corruption in plot allocations under the Purbachal Project. The verdict in that case was delivered on Monday, sentencing her to two years in prison and fining her Tk1 lakh.
According to the court, as Tulip Siddiq is absconding, the trial and verdict were completed in her absence.
