Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission has filed cases against ousted leader Sheikh Hasina and her family, including a British government minister and a senior United Nations official, its chief said Monday.
Hasina, 77, fled a revolution in August 2024 to India, where she defied extradition requests from Bangladesh to face charges including mass murder.
The cases relate to an alleged large-scale land grab of lucrative plots in a suburb of the densely populated capital Dhaka.
“Sheikh Hasina, in collaboration with some officials, allotted plots for herself and her family members,” Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Director General Akhter Hossain told reporters.
Hossain said those named in the case also included Hasina’s niece, British anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq. She has insisted that she has done nothing wrong. Also on the list is Hasina’s daughter, Saima Wazed, head of the World Health Organization for Southeast Asia.
There was no immediate response from Wazed.
“The ACC investigation team obtained the necessary documents and found sufficient evidence to file the cases,” Hossain said. AFP. “They will include relevant details such as property acquisitions while further investigations are carried out.”
Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy is also named, as is Hasina’s sister Sheikh Rehana, Siddiq’s mother.
Siddiq referred this month to the British Prime Minister’s standards adviser, Keir Starmer. The referral came after British newspapers Sunday weather and Financial times reported that he had lived in properties linked to the Hasina administration.
Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission also launched an investigation in December into Hasina’s family’s alleged embezzlement of $5 billion related to a Russian-funded nuclear power plant. The bribery allegations relate to the $12.65 billion Rooppur nuclear plant, which was financed by Moscow with a 90 percent loan.
