Bangladesh court sentences UK MP Tulip Siddiq to two years in prison 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.

In a ruling on Monday, 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 had been carried out in absentia and on Monday 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 corruption judgment against Siddiq because she was denied the opportunity to a fair legal process in the case.

Siddiq had denied the charges, claiming that much of the evidence being presented by prosecutors was forged. She had been 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.

During the trial, the prosecutor, Khan Mohammed Mainul Hasan, alleged that Siddiq had called and messaged top aides in Hasina’s office and visited Dhaka personally to secure plots of land for members of her family in a suburb of the capital.

The prosecutors did not present evidence of these messages but said the accounts of Siddiq’s communications had come from two witnesses who were officials working at the prime minister’s residence at the time.

After the verdict, Siddiq told the Guardian she hoped it would be met with the “contempt it deserves”. She said: “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.”

Last week, a group of leading Brtish lawyers, including a former Conservative justice secretary, told Bangladesh’s ambassador that the trial against Siddiq was “artificial, contrived and unfair”.

Due to their absence, the accused in the case were denied access to defence lawyers and a lawyer who attempted to represent Siddiq and others alleged she was threatened and put under house arrest.

Siddiq, a former cabinet minister, claimed she had been caught up in a politically motivated attack on her aunt Hasina, whose 15-year rule of Bangladesh was marred with authoritarianism, corruption and human rights abuses.

After Hasina was toppled from power in a popular uprising in August 2024, an interim government was appointed, led by the Nobel prize laureate Muhammad Yunus.

A core mandate of the interim government was to bring Hasina and senior figures in her administration to justice for alleged corruption and human rights abuses that took place during her 15 years in power. There has been substantial public and political pressure for trials to proceed quickly.

Last month, Bangladesh’s international crimes tribunal found Hasina guilty of crimes against humanity, for her role in the massacre of more than 1,000 people who took part in the anti-government protests last year that eventually led to her downfall. In a subsequent corruption trial last week, Hasina was given a further 21-year prison sentence on corruption charges.

In a statement after Monday’s verdict, Hasina’s Awami League called the anti-corruption trials “a political mechanism used for political ends by desperate, unelected men”.

Hasina has remained in exile in India since her fall from power last August and the country has yet to respond to extradition requests by Bangladesh for her to return to serve her sentence.

During Hasina’s tenure, Siddiq was pictured several times with Hasina in Bangladesh though she later stated that all her visits were on a personal basis.

In January, Siddiq stepped down as Treasury minister amid allegations that she had used properties linked to the Hasina regime. An inquiry later found she had broken no rules but stated it was “regrettable” Siddiq had not been more alert to the “potential reputational risks” of her ties to Hasina.

After the verdict, a Labour spokesperson said: “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.”