Top News

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: The “Nobel Peace Prize” awardee Muhammad Yunus is on a warpath against his sworn enemy, former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, her family, and her Awami League leaders, the way Pakistan’s “Field Marshal” Syed Asim Munir is hounding former PM Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi, who is in jail since August 2023.

Following the standard practice of dictators, in the latest instance, ahead of the expected February 2026 parliamentary polls, yet another kangaroo court in Dhaka sentenced Hasina to five years in prison and her niece, British Labor Party lawmaker Tulip Siddiq, to ​​two years in jail on Monday, for alleged corruption involving a government land project, the media reported.

Rabiul Alam, the judge of Dhaka’s Special Judge’s Court, said Hasina misused her power as the PM, while Siddiq was guilty of corruptly influencing her aunt in helping her mother and two siblings get a land plot in a government project. Siddiq’s mother, Sheikh Rehana, was given seven years in prison and was considered the prime participant in the case. There are 14 other suspects as well.

Britain’s Labor MP and former junior minister Tulip Siddiq was sentenced to two years in prison in Bangladesh after being put on trial in her absence alongside 16 other people over corruption allegations, BBC reported.

Siddiq, who is based in London and has rejected the charges, is unlikely to serve the sentence. In a statement, she said the process had been “flawed and farcical from the beginning to the end.”

“The outcome of this kangaroo court is as predictable as it is unjustified. I hope this so-called ‘verdict’ will be treated with the contempt it deserves. My focus has always been my constituents in Hampstead and Highgate and I refuse to be distracted by the dirty politics of Bangladesh.”

Since Hasina was ousted in August 2024 and she fled to India, prosecutors in Bangladesh have launched a series of wide-ranging legal cases against the former leader, her past associates, and family members.

The trial involving Siddiq, who quit as a junior Treasury Minister in January 2025 over controversy around her ties to her aunt, has been playing out in Dhaka since August 2025. She faces a number of outstanding charges.

Court documents claimed that Siddiq “forced and influenced” Hasina using her special power to secure (a plot of land) for her mother Rehana Siddiq, sister Azmina Siddiq and brother Radwan Siddiq.”

A prosecutor for Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) previously said Siddiq was tried as a Bangladeshi citizen as authorities had obtained her Bangladeshi passport, ID, and tax number.

Her lawyers have disputed she is a Bangladeshi citizen. She “never had” an ID card or voter ID, and “has not held a passport since she was a child.”

She was sentenced by Judge Rabiul Alam to two years in prison and a 100,000 Bangladeshi Taka fine ($821; £620). If she fails to pay, six months will be added to the sentence.

When the trial began, the MP said prosecutors had “peddled false and vexatious allegations that have been briefed to the media but never formally put to me by investigators.”

A Labor spokesperson said the party could not recognize the judgment. “As has been reported, highly regarded senior legal professionals have highlighted that Tulip Siddiq has not had access to a fair legal process in this case and has never been informed of the details of the charges against her.”

“This is despite repeated requests made to the Bangladeshi authorities through her legal team.”

The fresh verdict came two weeks after Hasina was sentenced to death in a separate case over her alleged role in a brutal crackdown against the protests which ultimately forced her from office in July-August 2024.

She was found guilty of “crimes against humanity” over the deaths of an estimated 1,400 people at the hands of the police.

That trial was held in Hasina’s absence, as she has been in exile in India since being ousted. She denied the charges.

Siddiq, whose mother is Hasina’s sister, continues to face a number of outstanding charges in Bangladesh, including two ongoing trials in relation to the allegations at the center of Monday’s verdict.

Siddiq and her family have also been investigated in relation to allegations of embezzlement in around a £3.9bn deal in 2013 connected to a Russian-funded nuclear power plant.

She repeatedly denied wrongdoing in relation to the allegations, which originated with claims made by Bobby Hajjaj, a political opponent of Hasina.

Bangladeshi authorities claimed they estimated that around $234bn (£174bn) was appropriated through corruption during Hasina’s long reign.

Responding to the latest verdict, the Awami League described it as “entirely predictable” and “firmly denied” the allegations against Hasina and her family members.

Hasina also accused Bangladesh’s judiciary of being controlled by an “unelected government run by the Awami League’s political opponents,” namely the interim government headed up by Muhammed Yunus, Chief Advisor to the Interim Government in Dhaka.

Prior to Siddiq’s resignation from the British government, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s independent ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus said he had not found “evidence of improprieties” following an investigation.

The UK does not have an extradition treaty with Bangladesh. It is categorized as a 2B country, meaning clear evidence needs to be presented to lawyers and judges to authorize any extradition.

Siddiq was not compelled to return to Dhaka for the trial despite authorities there issuing an arrest warrant.