DHAKA: A court in Bangladesh on Monday heard cases brought by the anti-corruption organization against ex-leader Sheikh Hasina and her family, including her daughter who has served as a top UN official.
Three officials from the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) read out testimonies in three separate cases over an alleged land grab of lucrative plots in a suburb of the capital Dhaka.
Hasina, 77, fled Bangladesh by helicopter on August 5, 2024, after weeks of student-led protests against her autocratic rule.
She has defied orders to return from India, including to attend her separate and ongoing trial on charges amounting to crimes against humanity, over the deadly crackdown on the uprising.
Hasina has been named in six corruption cases, along with her US-based son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and her daughter Saima Wazed, who has been serving as the World Health Organization’s Southeast Asia chief in New Delhi.
“If found guilty, Sheikh Hasina, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and Saima Wazed could face up to 14 years in prison,” ACC lawyer Khan Mohammad Mainul Hossain told AFP.
Wazed is on leave from the WHO and a new official has taken up a post as “officer-in-charge.”
In total, six cases have been filed of alleged corruption connected to Hasina.
Among those named in other cases, some slated to be heard later in August, are Hasina’s sister, Sheikh Rehana, and her children — including British lawmaker Tulip Siddiq.
Tulip Siddiq resigned as the UK government’s anti-corruption minister in January, denying any wrongdoing after being named in multiple probes in Bangladesh.
Siddiq’s lawyers have said the allegations against her are false.
Bangladesh court hears graft case against ex-PM Sheikh Hasina
https://arab.news/bwqjx
Bangladesh court hears graft case against ex-PM Sheikh Hasina
- Hasina has been named in six corruption cases, along with her US-based son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and her daughter Saima Wazed
- Her daughter has been serving as the World Health Organization’s Southeast Asia chief in New Delhi
Spain fines Airbnb 64 mn euros for posting banned properties
- The fine is final, the consumer affairs ministry said in a statement, adding the US holiday-rental giant must “correct the violations by deleting illegal content“
MADRID: Spain’s leftist government said Monday it had fined Airbnb more than 64 million euros ($75 million), notably for posting listings for banned rental properties, at a time the country faces a housing crisis.
The fine is final, the consumer affairs ministry said in a statement, adding the US holiday-rental giant must “correct the violations by deleting illegal content.”
The ministry said 65,122 adverts on Airbnb breached consumer rules, including the promotion of properties without a license or those whose license number did not match with data in registers.
The fine is equivalent to six times the illegal profit made by Airbnb between the time the company was warned about the offending adverts and before they were taken down, the ministry added.
A tourism boom has driven the buoyant Spanish economy but fueled local concern about increasingly scarce and unaffordable housing, a top priority for the minority coalition government.
The world’s second most-visited country hosted a record 94 million foreign tourists in 2024 and is on course to surpass that figure this year.
But residents of hotspots such as Barcelona blame short-term rentals for the housing crisis and changing their neighborhoods.
In June, the consumer rights ministry also ordered online accommodation giant Booking.com to take down more than 4,000 illegal adverts.
“There are thousands of families who are living on the edge due to housing, while a few get rich with business models that expel people from their homes,” far-left consumer rights minister Pablo Bustinduy said in the ministry statement.
“We’ll prove it as many times as necessary: no company, no matter how big or powerful, is above the law. Even less so when it comes to housing,” he added on social network Bluesky.
