Bangladesh court sentences Siddiq to jail term in absentia

A court in Bangladesh has sentenced the British MP Tulip Siddiq to two years in jail after a judge ruled she was complicit in corrupt land deals with her aunt, the country’s deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

- Hannah Ellis-Petersen

In a ruling yesterday, a judge found Siddiq, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate, guilty of misusing her “special influence” as a British politician to coerce Hasina into giving valuable pieces of land to her mother, brother and sister.

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

The trial was carried out in absentia. Yesterday neither Hasina, Siddiq, Rehana nor more than a dozen other members of her family accused in the case were in the court as the verdict was read out. The UK does not have an extradition treaty with Bangladesh, and it is unlikely Siddiq will serve the sentence. The Labour party said it did not recognise the judgment because she was denied the opportunity to a fair legal process.

Siddiq had denied the charges, claiming much of the evidence presented by prosecutors was forged. She was put on trial as a Bangladeshi citizen, with a passport and tax ID, even though she said she had not held a Bangladeshi passport since childhood and had never paid taxes there.