DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladeshi anti-corruption officials testified in court on Wednesday against former British Minister Tulip Siddiq, accused of using her familial connection to deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to obtain state-owned land plots in the South Asian country.
Siddiq, who is Hasina’s niece, resigned from her post as an anti-corruption minister in Prime Minister 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 is being tried together with her mother, Sheikh Rehana, brother, Radwan Mujib, and sister, Azmina. Siddiq 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 trial at the Dhaka Special Judge Court-4 formally began Wednesday with testimonies by officials of the country’s Anti-Corruption Commission. By Wednesday afternoon, the court had heard from two officials and a third is expected to testify later in the day, said Muhammad Tariqul Islam, a public prosecutor.
Siddiq’s 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 Britain’s center-left Labor Party government as economic secretary to the Treasury — the minister responsible for tackling financial corruption.
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. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took over as interim leader and vowed to try the former prime minister. Hundreds of protesters were killed during the uprising and Hasina now faces charges, including crimes against humanity.
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Associated Press video journalist Al Emrun Garjon in Dhaka, Bangladesh, contributed to the report.
