The Awami League dismissed the Dhaka court verdict against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her family members in an Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) case, calling it “entirely predictable.”
Criticising the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, the party alleged that the ruling reflects how the ACC has been “weaponised” for political motives by “desperate, unelected men.”
Earlier in the day, the court sentenced Hasina to five years in prison over alleged irregularities in the Purbachal New Town land allocation project. Her sister, Sheikh Rehana, received a seven-year sentence, while her niece, British MP Tulip Siddiq, was sentenced to two years.
“No persuasive evidence of corruption was heard at the ACC, because none exists. Defendants did not have proper legal representation at the ACC and were judged in absentia. The process fails to pass any reasonable test of judicial fairness, a point that has been made forcefully by both local and international legal experts,” read a statement issued by the Awami League.
The party alleged that unelected interim leader Muhammad Yunus is pursuing a personal vendetta against Sheikh Hasina and has baselessly targeted elected officials overseas. It further stated that the entire judicial and diplomatic episode is damaging and undermines Bangladesh’s international reputation.
“No country is free from corruption. But corruption needs to be investigated in a way that is not itself corrupt. The ACC has failed that test today. It is controlled by an unelected government run by the Awami League’s political opponents. It has exclusively targeted members of the Awami League, or those seen to be sympathetic to our party, and done nothing to prosecute or even investigate the cronyism that has escalated in Bangladesh since Muhammad Yunus and his so-called interim government took power,” the Awami League quoted Hasina.
The former PM stated that the verdict serves only the interests of “Yunus and his ragtag coalition of extremists and opportunists”, warning that the entire affair risks damaging Bangladesh’s standing with key trading partners.
