Ex-City minister and Labour MP Tulip Siddiq guilty in corruption trial

Ex-City minister Tulip Siddiq has been sentenced two years in jail by a Bangladeshi court after being found guilty of corruption. 

The Labour MP, 43, was said to have unduly influenced her aunt, the country's ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

It was alleged she wanted to secure a plot of land for her family on Dhaka's outskirts - a claim Ms Siddiq strongly denied.

She was sentenced in abstentia alongside 16 other people and handed a 100,000 Bangladeshi Taka fine by Judge Rabiul Alam, the equivalent of £620.

If she fails to pay, six months will be added to her prison time.

Ms Sadiq today said she refuses to be 'distracted by the dirty politics of Bangladesh'.

She added: 'This 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. 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.'

In an interview with broadcasters, the Labour MP said she had repeatedly reached out to the Bangladeshi authorities in an attempt to clear her name but claimed her approaches had been rebuffed.

She added: 'I am not difficult to find. I am a parliamentarian. All they had to do is send some papers to the House of Commons, to Parliament, and I would have responded.

'I feel like I am in some sort of Kafka-esqe nightmare where I am carrying on doing my day job but on the other hand, I am apparently being convicted in Bangladesh.

'And the only reason I know I am being convicted is because I read it in the newspapers. So this is trial by media which is deeply unfair.'

Ms Siddiq - who was the government's anti-corruption minister - was forced to resign her position in the treasury earlier this year over the allegations.

Political observers in Bangladesh had thought she was 'highly likely' to be convicted. Her aunt, Hasina, 78, was found guilty in the same case last week and sentenced to 23 years in prison.

Ms Siddiq has always denied the charges, accusing the Bangladeshi authorities of mounting a political witch-hunt against her.

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But today's sentencing means the MP for Hampstead and Highgate is likely to face renewed calls to stand down as a parliamentarian.

Most of the 17 accused - among them Sheikh Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana - were absent when the judgment was pronounced.

The Labour Party said today it does not recognise the corruption judgment against Ms Siddiq.

A spokesman added: 'The Labour Party and all our elected representatives take the rule of law incredibly seriously and will always fulfil our legal responsibilities.

'As has been reported, highly regarded senior legal professionals have highlighted that Tulip Siddiq has not had access to a fair legal process in this case and has never been informed of the details of the charges against her.

'This is despite repeated requests made to the Bangladeshi authorities through her legal team.

'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 recognise this judgment.'

Cabinet minister Darren Jones said Ms Siddiq had made it clear that she denies 'any wrongdoing whatsoever'.

He told Sky News: 'She's tried to engage, as I understand, with this process in Bangladesh, unsuccessfully.

'And so she's concluded it's a kind of more a political operation than a legal one.

'She was obviously not part of that trial or court process in Bangladesh and they concluded, innocence or otherwise, without her.

'So, Tulip will have to comment more on the details, but my understanding is that she refutes any accusations.'

Last week, prominent British lawyers and former ministers, led by Cherie Blair KC, signed a joint letter where they said the trial against Ms Siddiq was 'contrived and unfair.'

The letter, sent to the Bangladesh High Commissioner to the UK, Abida Islam, added: 'She [Siddiq] is being tried in her absence without justification and that the proceedings fall far short of standards of fairness recognised internationally.'

Mrs Blair and her co-signatories said: 'A lawyer in Bangladesh she appointed to represent her was forced to stand down, reporting that he had been placed under house arrest, further informing Ms Siddiq that his daughter had been threatened.'

Ms Siddiq resigned from her position as Economic Secretary to the Treasury after the Daily Mail revealed in December she was being investigated in Bangladesh in a £4billion bribery case.

She and members of her family were accused of siphoning off £4billion from a Russian-built nuclear power plant deal, a claim Ms Siddiq has always denied.

Weeks later, the Mail on Sunday revealed how she lied to the newspaper three years earlier when she told its reporters her parents bought her a flat in London's King's Cross, when in fact it was gifted to her by a political ally of her aunt.

An inquiry by the independent watchdog on Ministerial Standards, Sir Lauri Magnus, said Ms Siddiq did not breach the Minister Code, but should have been more alert to the 'reputational risks' from her 'close family's association with Bangladesh.'

Neither Mrs Blair nor Mr Buckland responded to the MoS, but Mr Grieve said: 'The letter was based on credible information and evidence made available to us. I have nothing to add about the matter.'

Ms Siddiq declined to comment on the trial or the letter.

Britain does not currently have an extradition treaty with Bangladesh.

Last month Sheikh Hasina was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death.

She was tried in her absence as she has been living in exile in India since being forced from power.

Reacting to the verdict, she said: 'The verdicts announced against me have been made by a rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate.

'They are biased and politically motivated. In their distasteful call for the death penalty, they reveal the brazen and murderous intent of extremist figures within the interim government to remove Bangladesh's last elected prime minister.'

A three-judge bench of the country's international crimes tribunal convicted Hasina of crimes including murder, extermination, torture and other inhumane acts.

Reading the verdict to the court, Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder said the 'accused prime minister committed crimes against humanity by her order to use drones, helicopters and lethal weapons'.

Hasina had pleaded not guilty to the charges and alleged the tribunal was a 'politically motivated charade'.

According to a United Nations report, up to 1,400 people may have been killed during the protests between July 15 and August 5, 2024, with thousands more injured – most of them by gunfire from security forces – in what was the worst violence in Bangladesh since its 1971 war of independence.

During the trial, prosecutors told the court they had uncovered evidence of Hasina's direct command to use lethal force to suppress the student-led uprising.

The court said the attacks during the protests last year were 'directed against the civilian population', and 'widespread and systematic'.