LABOUR MP TULIP SIDDIQ SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS IN JAIL BY A COURT IN BANGLADESH OVER 'LAND PLOT'

Former City Minister Tulip Siddiq has been sentenced to four years in jail on Monday by a court in her native Bangladesh.

The Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate was jailed in absentia for allegedly trying to acquire plots of land for members of her family in an exclusive residential area of Dhaka called the Purbachal New Town Project.

The new ruling comes barely a month after she was sentenced by the same court for two years on related corruption charges.

At the time, she denounced the verdict as ‘unfair,’ and accused the proceedings of being a ‘kangaroo court.’

She said in December: ‘The outcome of this kangaroo court is as predictable as it is unjustified. I hope this so-called “verdict” will be treated with the contempt it deserves.

‘I refuse to be distracted by the dirty politics of Bangladesh.’

In Monday’s proceedings, Ms Siddiq’s Oxford-educated younger sister, Azmina, 34, and her elder brother, Radwan, 45, have also been sentenced to seven years in jail each.

Azmina and Radwan, both of whom live in Britain, have been found guilt of illegally acquiring a third of an acre of land each in Purbachal, which would have been used to build apartments.

The two siblings could not contacted for comment.

Judge Robiul Alam, sitting at the Dhaka Special Judge Court, also fined Ms Siddiq with £593, which would be converted to six months more prison if not paid.

Her brother and sister were fined just under £1200 each, which will also convert to six months more prison each if not paid.

Sheikh Hasina Wazed, the former prime minister of Bangladesh and the aunt of Ms Siddiq, has also been jailed by the court for 10 years for her role in allocating plots of land to her extended family.

The ex-PM, who ruled Bangladesh with an iron fist for 15 years until she was toppled in August 2023, is now living in exile in India.

Purbachal, which lies in the north of the capital Dhaka, has become one of Bangladesh’s most exclusive residential areas, as well as its new diplomatic enclave.

The court heard last year how Ms Siddiq, 43, used her influence as a British MP to pressure her Hasina to allocate the plots of land to her brother and sister, as well as her mother, Rehana, 69, who is also a British citizen.

Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) - which brought the charges last year - said in court that both Radwan and Azmina broke the law by apparently hiding their ownership of other properties in Dhaka, which would have disqualified them to acquire any land inside Purbachal.

Under Bangladeshi regulations, family members of serving ministers or government officials were automatically barred from buying land inside Purbachal if they owned property elsewhere in the capital.

Ms Siddiq has strenuously denied all the charges against her since they became public last year. She has maintained she is a victim of a political witch-hunt.

Ms Siddiq resigned as City Minister in January last year, a month after the Daily Mail revealed how she was being investigated by the ACC over claims that she and her family members took bribes over a Russian-built nuclear power plant deal in Bangladesh.

She strenuously denied the claims.

Ms Siddiq resigned after the Parliamentary watchdog for standards investigated claims that Ms Siddiq owned and lived in flats in London that were gifted to her and family members by British-based supporters of her aunt Hasina.

She was cleared of any wrongdoing but the report found she was perhaps inattentive of the ‘reputational damage’ her links to Bangladeshi politics may cause.

A Labour spokesman said: 'Tulip Siddiq has not had access to a fair legal process in this case and has never been informed of the details of the charges against her.

'This is despite repeated requests made to the Bangladeshi authorities through her legal team. Anyone facing any charge should always be afforded the right to make legal representations when allegations are made against them. Given that has not happened in this case, we cannot recognise this judgment.'

Labour sources have said that there are no plans to strip Ms Siddiq of her party membership nor launch any disciplinary investigations into her after the court sentencing in Bangladesh, as 'there are significant concerns about the integrity and fairness of this process.'

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2026-02-02T12:42:29Z