Tulip Siddiq's trial exposes the depths of corruption in Bangladesh

Telegraph

2 days ago

However bad the summer recess has been for the Government, it's been considerably worse for Labour MP and former Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq.
Having resigned from the Government at the beginning of this year after she became the subject of a corruption inquiry in her parents' native Bangladesh, the Hampstead and Highgate MP is now, in her absence, on trial there, along with a number of other members of her family. If found guilty she faces life imprisonment.
The details of the charges say less about Keir Starmer's unfortunate tendency to lose ministers accused of dubious conduct – Siddiq's resignation was preceded by Louise Haigh's departure as transport secretary after a historic charge of fraud was unearthed, and succeeded by the resignation of homelessness minister Rushanara Ali after she was accused of evicting tenants of her privately rented property then hiking the rent by £700 a month – than it does about the regrettable political culture in Bangladesh.
The allegations against Siddiq were investigated by the Prime Minister's standards adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, who found no evidence of 'improprieties'.
And Siddiq herself has vigorously insisted on her innocence, recently pointing out on social media that she has yet to be contacted by the Bangladeshi authorities with regard to the accusations made against her. The 'so-called trial' was 'a farce', one that was built on 'fabricated accusations and driven by a clear political vendetta'.
'I have never received a court summons, no official communication, and no evidence. If this were a genuine legal process, the authorities would have engaged with me or my legal team, responded to our formal correspondence, and presented the evidence they claim to hold.
'Instead, they have peddled false and vexatious allegations that have been briefed to the media but never formally put to me by investigators.'
Siddiq is accused of influencing her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted as Bangladesh's prime minister last year, to secure a plot of land in a suburb of the capital Dhaka for her family members. Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is also investigating a separate case against Siddiq and her family over allegations of embezzlement of £3.9bn.
But here's the kicker: Bangladeshi authorities estimate that about £174bn was siphoned off from Bangladesh through corrupt means while Hasina was in power. But this sort of endemic, cultural corruption is not confined to one family or party. Corruption has been endemic since the country was founded. According to Transparency International's 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index, in which the country perceived to have the most honest public sector is ranked first, Bangladesh ranked 151st out of 180 countries. There is some good news, however: of eight South Asian countries, Bangladesh manages to emerge as less corrupt than Afghanistan.
Of course, the rest of the world should welcome any moves that any of these kleptocracies make to clean up their governments, especially if, like the UK, they are providing tens of millions of pounds a year to them. But it can hardly be denied that the truth of the allegations against Siddiq and her family has been lost amid the petty rivalries of competing political dynasties in that unfortunate country. Just as history is written by the victors, corruption charges are brought by whoever benefited from the latest coup.
Bangladesh's interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, refused her offer to meet when he recently visited London. 'Even my offer to meet… Muhammad Yunus during his recent visit to London was refused,' Siddiq wrote. 'Such conduct is wholly incompatible with the principles of a fair trial that we uphold in the UK.'
It would be patronising and condescending to make excuses for the obvious failings of Bangladesh's political and judicial cultures. Free and fair trials should be the standard practice across the globe, but it seems clear that Bangladesh still has some way to go.
Meanwhile, anyone who might expect Siddiq to attend her own trial and to risk never being allowed to return to her native UK must have an over-optimistic and unjustified confidence in the justice system there.