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Minister Accused of Neglect in Lawyer's Disappearance During Aunt's Regime

by DD Desk

August 17, 2024

Minister Accused of Neglect in Lawyer's Disappearance During Aunt's Regime

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Minister Accused of Failing to Aid Missing Lawyer

Tulip Siddiq of Labour could have attempted to liberate Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem Arman by using personal contacts, according to his attorneys.

A Labour minister has come under fire for allegedly neglecting to assist a barrister with British training who was held inhumanely for almost ten years in Bangladesh under her aunt's totalitarian rule.

Attorneys for Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem Arman, 40, who disappeared in 2016, said Tulip Siddiq had the opportunity to use her personal contacts to liberate him sooner from eight years of detention in secret.

He was one of hundreds of individuals who vanished during the administration of Sheikh Hasina, the former Bangladeshi prime leader and aunt of Ms. Saddiq. When her government fell earlier this month, she left the nation.

After 15 years in office, Sheikh Hasina, 76, the prime leader of Bangladesh with the longest tenure, was removed and is currently in India. As the dictatorship carried out extrajudicial killings, opponents were attacked, detained, and imprisoned in secret during her term.

Ms. Siddiq is being criticised when it was revealed that she was renting a £2 million home owned by a businessman who is allegedly her aunt's political buddy.

After being elected as an MP for Hampstead in 2015, Ms Siddiq told reporters that her aunt had "taught me the most" a year prior to Mr Arman's disappearance.

She taught me everything there is to know about politics, including social justice, running a campaign, and connecting with the public, the woman remarked.

Hasina was also present in the House of Commons gallery as her niece made her maiden speech, and on social media later hailed her aunt as a “strong female role model” for her own daughter.

Mr Arman, who was called to the Bar of England and Wales and studied at the University of London, was finally freed this month after the army ordered his release from a notorious detention centre following the collapse of Hasina’s government.

London was influencing actions on the ground in Dhaka,” Mr Polak said.

It is understood that Ms Siddiq wrote to then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson over the case in December 2017, after it was raised by constituents, believing this was the correct protocol.

While Shabana Mahmood, now Justice Secretary, asked parliamentary questions about the case in January 2017, Ms Siddiq has not raised it in the House of Commons.

The City Minister has been criticised for not using her personal connections to try to free the barrister.

“The familial connections between Tulip and the regime, her aunt being the then Prime Minister Hasina and an uncle being Hasina’s feared security adviser Tarique Siddique, who himself has been accused of being involved in enforced disappearances should have been enough for her to get involved and for her to disassociate herself from this regime,” Mr Polak said.

Ms Siddiq once said on a blog that she worked for her aunt’s Awami League Party. She has attended official Bangladeshi government events such as a meeting between Hasina and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr Polak added: “Despite all of this, Tulip decided not to intervene to bring Arman back to his family. Had she done so, he could have spent the last 8 years with his wife and two daughters watching them grow up rather than in a secret cell without any access to sunlight, hearing the cries of those tortured in the same facility, thinking that the regime might end his life at any time.

“I still do not understand why Tulip made this choice and described Hasina as a strong role model for her children, despite the huge amount of evidence, including from organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, in relation to the hundreds of disappeared ripped away from their loved ones, some never to return.”

Last week, it emerged she was renting a £2 million house owned by a businessman said to be political ally of her aunt.

Labour said this is paid at “market levels” and relevant disclosures had been made to the Treasury, but did not provide an on-the-record statement on the case of Mr Arman.

However, sources said she was unable to raise the issue as a constituency MP and only able to do so when it was raised by her constituents.

Source: Telegraph