UK
Labour MP Tulip Siddiq sentenced to two years in prison at corruption trial in Bangladesh
Labour MP Tulip Siddiq has been sentenced to two years in jail for corruption in Bangladesh.
Ms Siddiq was accused of using her influence over her aunt, the country’s former prime minister, to illegally secure plots of land for family members in the diplomatic zone of the capital Dhaka.
She was being tried in absentia.
Her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, was ousted last year and has since been sentenced to death, although she fled to India before she could be arrested.
Ms Siddiq, her niece, has described herself as “collateral damage” in the new Bangladesh government’s campaign against Ms Hasina, and previously said the trial was based on “fabricated accusations and driven by a clear political vendetta”.
In response to the sentence on Monday, Ms Siddiq said the “whole process has been flawed and farcical from the beginning to the end”.
“The outcome of this kangaroo court is as predictable as it is unjustified,” she added. “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.”
The MP previously said the trial was ‘driven by a clear political vendetta’. File pic: Reuters
The Labour MP resigned her ministerial post earlier this year after she was accused of illegally receiving a plot of land from her aunt.
An investigation by Sir Keir Starmer’s ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, did not find “evidence of improprieties”.
However, he said it was “regrettable” that Ms Siddiq had not been more alert to the “potential reputational risks” of the ties to her aunt.
The UK does not have an extradition treaty in place with Bangladesh.
Former prime minister: Investigation ‘corrupt’
Awami League, a banned political party in Bangladesh, led by Ms Hasina, said that the verdicts were “entirely predictable… just as other recent ACC (Anti-Corruption Commission) cases have been,” and accused the commission of being led by “desperate, unelected men”.
Ms Hasina then added in a statement through the party: “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 Dr Mohammad Yunus and his so-called interim government took power.”
The former prime minister was handed a combined 21-year prison sentence in other corruption cases last week.
Siddiq was accused of obtaining plots of land from Sheikh Hasina, former prime minister and her aunt. File pic: AP
‘Profound concerns’ raised by British lawyers
Last week, a group of prominent British lawyers and former cabinet ministers wrote an open letter raising “profound concerns” over Ms Siddiq’s trial in Bangladesh.
Barrister Cherie Blair, who is married to ex-prime minister Tony Blair, Sir Robert Buckland, who served as justice secretary, and Dominic Grieve, an ex-attorney general, wrote that the criminal proceedings against Ms Siddiq were “artificial and a contrived and unfair way of pursuing a prosecution”.
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The lawyers wrote that Ms Siddiq did not have a “proper opportunity of defending herself”.
“She is being tried in her absence without justification and… the proceedings fall far short of standards of fairness recognised internationally,” they said.
The letter was also signed by high-profile lawyers Philippe Sands and Geoffrey Robertson.
They called for the Bangladeshi authorities to put all the allegations to Ms Siddiq’s lawyers “so that she has a fair opportunity to address them”.
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