A court in Bangladesh’s capital on Thursday instructed authorities to approach Interpol for a red notice seeking the arrest of a British lawmaker accused of corruption linked to a private real estate project, as reported by the Associated Press.
Tulip Siddiq, a former UK minister and the Member of Parliament for Hampstead and Highgate in London, is facing corruption charges in Bangladesh, where the Anti-Corruption Commission is pursuing legal action against her, as reported by AP.
Who is Tulip Siddiq?
Siddiq was born on 16 September 1982, in London, England, and is of British-Bangladeshi heritage. She is the niece of former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (her mother’s sister, Sheikh Rehana, is Hasina’s sister).
Siddiq has served as the MP for Hampstead and Kilburn since the 2015 general election, and following boundary changes, she now represents Hampstead and Highgate (re-elected in 2024).
She held the role of Economic Secretary to the Treasury and City Minister in the UK government from 9 July 2024, until her resignation on January 14, 2025.
Siddiq has already been handed a six-year prison sentence in Bangladesh in three separate corruption cases, all of which are linked to her influential aunt, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Hasina was removed from power in 2024 following a student-led mass uprising that brought an end to her 15-year tenure. She has been living in exile in India since August 5, 2024.
Siddiq has previously denied all the allegations against her, describing the verdicts as a “complete farce,” and asserting that she is a British citizen, not a Bangladeshi national.
The commission alleged that Siddiq leveraged her connections with Sheikh Hasina to influence the allocation of land to a private company in Dhaka’s upscale Gulshan neighbourhood.
The order was issued on Thursday by Mohammed Sabbir Faiz, a Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge, following a petition from the anti-corruption watchdog.
It came after the commission’s Assistant Director, A.K.M. Mortuza Ali Sagar, applied for a red notice through Interpol to help secure her arrest.
There was no immediate reaction from Siddiq on Thursday.
In January last year, Siddiq stepped down as a minister in the government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer amid mounting pressure over her links to Sheikh Hasina. Although she maintained that she had been cleared of any wrongdoing, Siddiq said she was resigning from her role as economic secretary to the Treasury because the controversy had become “a distraction from the work of the government.”
Three days after Hasina’s removal from office, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus assumed the role of interim leader and later oversaw an election on Feb. 12. The new administration, led by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, the son of Hasina’s main political rival and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, has since taken office.
(With inputs from AP)
- Tulip Siddiq faces serious corruption charges in Bangladesh tied to her influential family connections.
- The case highlights ongoing political tensions and corruption issues within Bangladesh’s governance.
- The use of Interpol’s Red Notice indicates the international implications of the allegations against Siddiq.
