Monday, December 1, 2025 - British-Bangladeshi politician, Tulip Siddiq, has been sentenced to 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 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, as 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.
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.
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.'
0 Comments