A Bangladesh court has sentenced the Labour MP Tulip Siddiq to two years in prison after finding her guilty of corruption over a government land project.
Siddiq was found guilty of corruptly influencing her aunt, the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, to help her mother acquire a piece of land in the suburbs of the Bangladeshi capital.
Siddiq’s mother, Sheikh Rehana, was given seven years in prison, while Hasina was sentenced to five years in prison.
All were tried in absentia by Dhaka’s Special Judge’s Court, and the MP for Hampstead and Highgate, who denied the allegations, is unlikely to serve her sentence, as the UK does not have an extradition treaty with Bangladesh.
Following the sentencing, Siddiq called the trial “flawed and farcical from the beginning to the end”.
She added: “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.”
Siddiq faces a number of cases in Bangladesh, which prompted her to resign as Sir Keir Starmer’s anti-corruption minister in January this year.
Hasina, who fled to India in August last year amid massive anti-government protests, has already been sentenced to death by a tribunal court in Bangladesh for committing crimes against humanity. Last week, she was handed a combined 21-year prison sentence in relation to other corruption cases.
Prosecutors argued that the land in the Purbachal New Town project was unlawfully allocated through political influence and collusion with senior officials, accusing the defendants of abusing their authority to secure the plot, which measures around 13,610 sq ft, during Hasina’s tenure as prime minister.
Court documents claimed that Siddiq “forced and influenced her aunt and the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina using her special power to secure [a plot of land] for her mother Rehana Siddiq, sister Azmina Siddiq and brother Radwan Siddiq”.
A total of 17 defendants were each told to pay TK100,000 (£620), with the proviso that they will serve an additional six months in prison if they fail to do so. The 14 other defendants were each sentenced to five years in prison.
Prosecutors said Siddiq was tried as a Bangladeshi citizen after the authorities obtained her Bangladeshi passport, ID and tax number – a claim disputed by the Labour MP.
Her lawyers claimed that she had “never had” a registered voter ID and that she had not “held a [Bangladeshi] passport since she was a child”.
None of the defendants, including Siddiq, appointed a defence lawyer to represent them.
Siddiq previously claimed that she was “collateral damage” in the feud between her aunt and Muhammad Yunus – the Nobel laureate named interim leader of Bangladesh following Hasina’s ousting.
In an interview with broadcasters on Monday, Siddiq said she had repeatedly reached out to the Bangladeshi authorities in an attempt to clear her name, but her approaches had been rebuffed.
She said: “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-esque nightmare where I am carrying on doing my day job, but on the other hand, I am apparently being convicted in Bangladesh,” she said in a reference to author Franz Kafka, famous for his stories of existentialism.
“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,” the MP added.
The Bangladesh court had issued an arrest warrant for Siddiq in April. She was indicted in July.
Siddiq resigned from her ministerial job at the Treasury earlier this year following an investigation by the prime minister’s ethics adviser of her links with Hasina’s regime. She came under scrutiny over her use of properties in London linked to her aunt’s allies.
Although Sir Laurie Magnus concluded that Siddiq had not breached the ministerial code, he advised Sir Keir to reconsider her responsibilities. Ms Siddiq chose to resign, saying she had become “a distraction” from the government’s agenda.
Asked about Monday’s conviction, chief secretary to the prime minister Darren Jones told BBC Breakfast: “This is a private matter for Tulip to talk to, but my understanding is that a trial took place in Bangladesh that she was not part of.
“She tried to engage with questions from the Bangladeshi government, but was not allowed to do so, and has concluded that this is more of a political situation than a legal situation. She continues to deny any allegations that have been made against her.”
He added: “This is a decision taken by a foreign country and a foreign court. I’m sure that Tulip’s going to be getting on with the job of representing her constituents in parliament.”
Siddiq’s mother and two siblings have been living outside Bangladesh since the August protests last year. Siddiq’s two siblings face other charges relating to last year’s uprising.
In a statement, Hasina rejected the process that found her guilty on Monday. She said: “No country is free from corruption. But corruption needs to be investigated in a way that is not itself corrupt. The ACC [Anti-Corruption Commission] has failed that test today.”
Her Awami League party, which has been banned from taking part in the country’s general election in February, said in a statement: “The allegations against Sheikh Hasina, her sister, and many others, including members of her immediate and wider family, are firmly denied. No persuasive evidence of corruption was heard at the ACC, because none exists.”
Hasina said her successor, Dr Yunus, was “using the ACC as a smokescreen to distract attention from his own governance failings”.
“He is also using it to suppress a political party that was elected nine times since independence, including the last time Bangladeshis were allowed to go to the polls,” she said.
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