A beneficiary of grand corruption waged by a repressive regime? Or an harmless bystander caught in political crossfire from a rustic 5 thousand miles away?
These are the questions on the core of a rare argument that is been raging for months between the Labour MP Tulip Siddiq and the authorities in Bangladesh.
Key to understanding this tangled story is knowing each the latest historical past of Bangladesh and the way Ms Siddiq’s household is woven into it.
Politics within the nation was turned on its head final August after weeks of lethal protests triggered the ousting of longstanding prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League regime.
From there, a brief authorities took cost led by an interim chief – or ‘Chief Adviser’ – the Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor Muhammad Yunus.
He pledged to start authorized proceedings to analyze crimes and human rights abuses allegedly dedicated beneath the earlier regime and get better wealth that had been reportedly taken overseas.
In March, my colleague Cordelia Lynch reported on torture chambers allegedly run by the ousted authorities and spoke to the interim chief who was clear about the place the blame lay.
“Everybody was involved in it all,” he stated. “The whole government was involved in it.”
He vowed motion towards Sheikh Hasina and people near her.
Which is the place Ms Siddiq enters the story.
Picture:
Tulip Siddiq. File pic: PA
In addition to being the niece of the previous prime minister, she can also be the granddaughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – the founding president of recent Bangladesh.
Tulip Siddiq’s mom Sheikh Rehana has additionally been intimately concerned in Bangladeshi politics and was reportedly by the aspect of her sister Sheikh Hasina when she fled Dhaka and resigned final August.
So these aren’t tangential or free hyperlinks.
And so they – to an extent – clarify why the Bangladeshi authorities are going after the Labour MP so vociferously.
Briefly, they see her as a part of an institution that they consider pilfered and abused Bangladesh for twenty years.
So is that this political guilt by affiliation – in different phrases, a “vendetta” as Tulip Siddiq places it – or is there substance to any of the allegations?
A few of the claims actually stretch believability and seem very political in nature.
Picture:
Sheikh Hasina with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi final 12 months. Pic: AP
For example, tales about her benefitting from billions of kilos siphoned off from a Russian nuclear deal seem to have emanated from a dubious-looking American web site which additionally used an AI-generated picture of Ms Siddiq to accompany their ‘reporting’.
Different accusations across the allocation of land are probably extra believable, however as but no laborious proof has emerged to again up the claims.
There are some elements of this story that look trickier for Ms Siddiq although.
Property documentation does present hyperlinks between her and associates of the Awami League.
The Bangladeshi authorities argue this implies the Labour MP could have – even unknowingly – benefitted from wealth corruptly taken overseas and used to buy flats and homes within the UK.
Ms Siddiq says this has been checked out by the Quantity 10 ethics adviser and located to be so as.
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Labour MP Tulip Siddiq talking to Sky Information
Briefing from sources near the MP additionally suggests a defence that these property hyperlinks had been born out of standard household relationships fairly than something extra political or monetary in nature.
However a photograph of Ms Siddiq within the Kremlin along with her aunt in 2013 in addition to the truth that she thanked Awami League supporters after her 2015 election suggests a extra political context.
That stated, disentangling politics and household if you find yourself descended from one-time political royalty and standing as an MP in a metropolis with a big Asian group could also be simpler stated than accomplished.
The Quantity 10 probe did counsel she ought to have been extra conscious of the doable reputational injury accomplished by these connections.
So it is a saga formed extra by Bangladeshi politics than British politics.
A rustic attending to grips with its previous and making ready for the longer term, however producing unwanted effects within the course of which can be reaching these shores.
