British MP gets two years in Bangladesh corruption probe

UK Labour Party MP Tulip Siddiq has been sentenced by a court in Bangladesh to two years in prison for corruption involving a government land project.

Her aunt, ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, was sentenced to five years.

Last month, Hasina was also sentenced to death after a trial found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year.

Ms Siddiq, who is MP for Hampstead and Highgate in London, has denied the allegations.

The Associated Press reported that Rabiul Alam, the judge of Dhaka's Special Judge's Court, said Ms Hasina misused her power as prime minister.

He also said Ms Siddiq was guilty of corruptly influencing her aunt in helping her mother get a piece of land in a government project.

Ms Siddiq's mother, Sheikh Rehana, was given seven years in prison and was reportedly considered the prime participant in the case.

The three women are out of the country and were tried in absentia.

Ms Siddiq's lawyers have called the charges baseless and politically motivated.

She previously told The Guardian the charges against her were "completely absurd" and asserted she was "collateral damage" in the longstanding feud between her aunt and Bangladesh's interim leader Muhammad Yunus.

The UK does not have an extradition treaty in place with Bangladesh.

The Hampstead and Highgate MP resigned from her ministerial job in the UK Treasury earlier this year following an investigation by the Prime Minister's ethics adviser into her links to Ms Hasina's regime, which was overthrown last year.

She came under scrutiny over her use of properties in London linked to her aunt's allies.

Although Laurie Magnus concluded that Ms Siddiq had not breached the Ministerial Code, he advised UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to reconsider her responsibilities.

Ms Siddiq chose to resign, saying she had become "a distraction" from the government's agenda.