A court in Bangladesh convicted in absentia on Monday British lawmaker and former minister Tulip Siddiq in a corruption case alongside her aunt, the country’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The case involves the alleged illegal allocation of a plot of land in the capital Dakka, which was supposed to be used toward a new township to ease housing pressure. A judge said Hasina misused her power as prime minister while Siddiq influenced her aunt to help her mother and two siblings get the land instead.
Siddiq was sentenced to two years in absentia. Hasina, who has been in India since she fled the uprising in Bangladesh in August last year, was given five years in jail, while her sister Rehana was sentenced to seven years, also in absentia.
Hasina was already sentenced to death last month over the crackdown on the uprising which eventually led to her ousting. Up to 1,400 people were killed in the crackdown, according to United Nations figures.
How have Siddiq and her Labour Party reacted to the court ruling?
Siddiq, who resigned from her role as Britain’s minister for financial services and anti corruption efforts in January, after scrutiny over her financial ties to her deposed aunt, condemned the Monday verdict, describing the trial process as “flawed and farcical.”
“The outcome of this kangaroo court is as predictable as it is unjustified,” she said in a statement. “My focus has always been my constituents in Hampstead and Highgate and I refuse to be distracted by the dirty politics of Bangladesh.”
A spokesperson for Siddiq’s Labour Party said she did not get access to a fair legal process and was not informed of the details of the charges against her.
“Anyone facing any charge should always be afforded the right to make legal representations when allegations are made against them. Given that has not happened in this case, we cannot recognize this judgment,” the spokesperson said.
Prosecutors said Bangladesh’s interim government would formally notify British authorities regarding the verdict. Britain does not have an extradition treaty with Bangladesh.
Hasina condemns court decision
In a statement to the French AFP news agency, Hasina slammed the verdict, which piles up with other corruption verdicts she’s already been hit with in absentia.
“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,” she said, in reference to Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission.
The deposed prime minister’s Awami League party described the verdict as the latest example of what it called a politically driven process led by “desperate, unelected men” – a reference to Bangladesh’s interim government headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Bangladesh is due to hold elections in February next year.
Edited by: Kieran Burke
