Labour MP Tulip Siddiq will study her destiny in a corruption trial in Bangladesh linked to her aunt, the nation’s former prime minister.
Ms Siddiq is accused of acquiring plots of land from her aunt in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone, via “abuse of power and influence”.
She is being tried in absentia with a verdict anticipated on Monday morning.
Her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, was ousted final 12 months and has since been sentenced to demise, though she fled to India earlier than she might be arrested.
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Labour MP Tulip Siddiq. File pic: PA
Ms Siddiq, her niece, has described herself as “collateral damage” within the new authorities’s marketing campaign in opposition to Sheikh Hasina.
She resigned her ministerial submit earlier this 12 months after she was accused of illegally receiving a plot of land from her aunt.
Though an investigation by the prime minister’s ethics adviser didn’t discover “evidence of improprieties”, he mentioned it was “regrettable” that Ms Siddiq had not been extra alert to the “potential reputational risks” of the ties to her aunt.
Final week, a gaggle of outstanding British attorneys and former cupboard ministers wrote an open letter elevating “profound concerns” over Ms Siddiq’s trial in Bangladesh.
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Sheikh Hasina. File pic: Reuters
Barrister Cherie Blair, who’s married to ex-prime minister Tony Blair, Sir Robert Buckland, who served as justice secretary, and Dominic Grieve, an ex-attorney common, wrote that the felony proceedings in opposition to Ms Siddiq had been “artificial and a contrived and unfair way of pursuing a prosecution”.
The attorneys wrote that Ms Siddiq didn’t have a “proper opportunity of defending herself”.
“She is being tried in her absence without justification and… the proceedings fall far short of standards of fairness recognised internationally,” they mentioned.
The letter was additionally signed by high-profile attorneys Philippe Sands and Geoffrey Robertson.
They referred to as for the Bangladeshi authorities to place all of the allegations to Ms Siddiq’s attorneys “so that she has a fair opportunity to address them”.
