Leading lawyers condemn ‘contrived’ Bangladesh trial of former UK minister

Original article by Daniel Boffey Chief reporter

The trial in Bangladesh of the former UK City minister Tulip Siddiq has been “contrived and unfair”, leading lawyers including a former Conservative justice secretary have told Bangladesh’s ambassador before Thursday’s verdict.

Siddiq, who resigned from the UK government in January, is due to receive her verdict and sentence in absentia, with the prosecution seeking a maximum life sentence term.

The Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate is the niece of Sheikh Hasina, the former prime minister of Bangladesh, who was given a death sentence last week over charges of crimes against humanity relating to last year’s crackdown on student-led protests.

In a letter to Abida Islam, Bangladesh’s high commissioner in the UK, a group of high-profile lawyers including Robert Buckland KC, who was justice secretary under Boris Johnson, and the former Tory attorney general Dominic Grieve, suggest Siddiq has not enjoyed basic rights during her trial, including knowledge of the charges against her or access to legal representation.

The group of lawyers, which also includes Cherie Blair KC, Philippe Sands KC and Geoffrey Robertson KC, further claim that a lawyer she instructed to represent her was put under house arrest and faced threats to his daughter.

“Such a process is artificial and a contrived and unfair way of pursuing a prosecution,” they write.

Siddiq and tens of other individuals, including her aunt, mother, brother and sister, have been on trial in Dhaka since the start of August.

The Labour MP is accused of influencing Hasina, who was ousted as Bangladesh’s prime minister last year, to secure a plot of land in a suburb of Dhaka for her mother, who is the sister of the former prime minister.

Siddiq denies the allegations, which she says are politically motivated.

The lawyers write of their “profound concern regarding the current criminal proceedings in Bangladesh” at a time when “the leader of the interim government, chief adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus, has repeatedly espoused the importance of the rule of law and justice in Bangladesh”.

They say of Siddiq: “As she lives in the UK and is a UK national, she is plainly not a fugitive. She is an elected member of parliament, who can be contacted at the House of Commons, and indeed extradited to Bangladesh to face charges if there are proper grounds for seeking her extradition.

“Not only has Ms Siddiq not been presented with the charges and evidence against her, she has also not been able to obtain legal representation.

“A lawyer in Bangladesh she appointed to represent her was forced to stand down, reporting that he had been placed under house arrest, further informing Ms Siddiq that his daughter had been threatened.

“This accords with reports of a pattern of interference and intimidation in the legal system since the interim government took office.”

They go on to claim that the anti-corruption commission in Dhaka leading on the prosecution has joined Yunis in making “repeated comments to the media about Ms Siddiq’s culpability”.

The UK lawyers say: “We find it difficult to see how such widespread media engagement by those in power, accusing Ms Siddiq of criminal wrongdoing, can be consistent with a fair and impartial trial free from interference.

“Given all of the circumstances, we have serious concerns that the trial of Ms Siddiq in absentia is unfair, that she does not have a proper opportunity of defending herself, or indeed any opportunity at all, that she is being tried in her absence without justification and that the proceedings fall far short of standards of fairness recognised internationally.”

The lawyers call on the authorities in Bangladesh to “rectify these concerns” to allow a fair trial to proceed.

After the airing of suggestions in the media that she had improperly benefited from her aunt’s rule, Keir Starmer’s independent adviser on the ministerial code, Sir Laurie Magnus, cleared Siddiq of wrongdoing in January.

But Magnus had added that it was “regrettable that she was not more alert to the potential reputational risks” that arose from her familial ties and her Treasury role.

Siddiq resigned from her roles as economic secretary to the Treasury and City minister, saying the allegations from Bangladesh were proving a distraction for the government.

The Bangladeshi high commission has been contacted for comment.