Tulip Siddiq’s trial formally began in Bangladesh on Wednesday with testimonies of anti-corruption officials against the former British minister.
The Labour Party member is facing charges for allegedly using her familial connection to the ousted prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, to obtain state-owned land plots in the South Asian country.
Ms Siddiq, who is Hasina’s niece, resigned from her post as an anti-corruption minister in Keir Starmer’s government in January following reports that she lived in London properties linked to her aunt and was named in an anti-corruption investigation in Bangladesh.
She said she had been cleared of wrongdoing but that the issue was becoming “a distraction from the work of the government”.
Ms Siddiq told The Guardian over the weekend that she was “collateral damage” in the feud between her aunt and Muhammad Yunus – the Nobel laureate appointed as the leader of Bangladesh in the absence of an elected prime minister.
“These are wider forces that I’m battling against … There’s no doubt people have done wrong things in Bangladesh, and they should be punished for it. It’s just I’m not one of them.”
The trial at the Dhaka Special Judge Court-4 began with testimonies by two officials of the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission. A third official is expected to testify later in the day, said Muhammad Tariqul Islam, a public prosecutor.
Ms Siddiq is being tried together with her mother, Sheikh Rehana, brother, Radwan Mujib, and sister, Azmina. She has been charged with facilitating their receipt of state land in a township project near the capital, Dhaka. The four were indicted earlier and asked to appear in court, however, the prosecution said they absconded and would be tried in absentia.
The Bangladesh court had issued an arrest warrant for Ms Siddiq in April. She was indicted in July.
Her lawyers had previously called the charges baseless and politically motivated.
Separately, the anti-corruption investigation has also alleged that Siddiq’s family was involved in brokering a 2013 deal with Russia for a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh in which large sums of money were said to have been embezzled.
Siddiq represents the north London district of Hampstead and Highgate in parliament, served in the Labour Party government as economic secretary to the Treasury – the minister responsible for tackling financial corruption.
Ms Hasina was ousted after a 15-year rule in a student-led mass uprising in August last year. She fled to India and has been in exile ever since. Hundreds of protesters were killed during the uprising and Ms Hasina now faces charges, including crimes against humanity.
