Bangladesh anti-corruption officials told a court on Wednesday of alleged abuses of power by ousted ex-leader Sheikh Hasina and her family in cases involving her niece, British lawmaker Tulip Siddiq.
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.
Siddiq, who resigned as British anti-corruption minister in January after being named in probes in Bangladesh into graft accusations, has called the process a "persecution and a farce", and is not in Bangladesh.
ACC lawyer Khan Mohammad Mainul said Siddiq was "lying".
"We have obtained all the necessary documents, including her correspondence in this matter," he told AFP. "We have strong evidence against her."
The cases are in addition to three corruption cases that opened on Monday. Hasina, 77, is named in all.
Hasina's rule saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killing of her political opponents.
She 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.
The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since the revolt.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, the 85-year-old leading the caretaker government as its chief adviser, has said he will step down after elections in February.
