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Cliff Notes – Siddiq over corruption
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A Bangladesh court convicted Tulip Siddiq and Sheikh Hasina, sentencing Siddiq to two years and Hasina to five in absentia for alleged land corruption linked to a housing project.
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Siddiq condemned the verdict as “flawed and farcical,” while her Labour Party stated she lacked access to a fair legal process and was not adequately informed of the charges against her.
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Hasina, in exile in India, described the court’s decision as politically motivated, while her party criticises the interim government for the ruling ahead of Bangladesh’s upcoming elections.
Siddiq over corruption
A court in Bangladesh convicted in absentia on Monday British lawmaker and former minister Tulip Siddiq in a corruption case alongside her aunt, the country’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The case involves the alleged illegal allocation of a plot of land in the capital Dakka, which was supposed to be used toward a new township to ease housing pressure. A judge said Hasina misused her power as prime minister while Siddiq influenced her aunt to help her mother and two siblings get the land instead.
Siddiq was sentenced to two years in absentia. Hasina, who has been in India since she fled the uprising in Bangladesh in August last year, was given five years in jail, while her sister Rehana was sentenced to seven years, also in absentia.
Hasina was already sentenced to death last month over the crackdown on the uprising which eventually led to her ousting. Up to 1,400 people were killed in the crackdown, according to United Nations figures.
How have Siddiq and her Labour Party reacted to the court ruling?
Siddiq, who resigned from her role as Britain’s minister for financial services and anti corruption efforts in January, after scrutiny over her financial ties to her deposed aunt, condemned the Monday verdict, describing the trial process as “flawed and farcical.”
“The outcome of this kangaroo court is as predictable as it is unjustified,” she said in a statement. “My focus has always been my constituents in Hampstead and Highgate and I refuse to be distracted by the dirty politics of Bangladesh.”
A spokesperson for Siddiq’s Labour Party said she did not get access to a fair legal process and was not informed of the details of the charges against her.
“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 recognize this judgment,” the spokesperson said.
Prosecutors said Bangladesh’s interim government would formally notify British authorities regarding the verdict. Britain does not have an extradition treaty with Bangladesh.
Hasina condemns court decision
In a statement to the French AFP news agency, Hasina slammed the verdict, which piles up with other corruption verdicts she’s already been hit with in absentia.
“No country is free from corruption. But corruption needs to be investigated in a way that is not itself corrupt. The ACC has failed that test today,” she said, in reference to Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission.
The deposed prime minister’s Awami League party described the verdict as the latest example of what it called a politically driven process led by “desperate, unelected men” – a reference to Bangladesh’s interim government headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Bangladesh is due to hold elections in February next year. Sheikh Hasina convicted of crimes against humanity.
Political Corruption: Tulip Siddiq political career over
News Team
Cliff Notes – Siddiq over corruption A Bangladesh court convicted Tulip Siddiq and Sheikh Hasina, sentencing Siddiq to two years and Hasina to five in
Taiwan eyes defence spending hike to counter China pressure
News Team
Cliff Notes – Taiwan eyes defence spending hike to counter China pressure Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te announced a plan to invest an extra $40 billion
October 12, 2024
6:18 am
‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
To downplay the genocide, the israelis claim there’s only 20,000 people left in north Gaza, says
@MahaGaza
: the real number exceeds 400,000
Man of the right wing Nigel Farage taking more second jobs and freebie helicopter rides
Gosh he’ll soon be a true blue Tory at this rate
Or far far worse
The cost-of-living crisis is far from over, yet the government’s 50% increase to the bus fare cap is a political choice, adding hundreds to annual costs.
To address hardship & the climate crisis, the government must keep the £2 cap & make public transport accessible for all.
G20 waters down support for Ukraine amid pressure for peace talks
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November 23, 2024
8:25 am
Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
November 23, 2024
8:25 am
November 23, 2024
8:17 am
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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