DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A court in Bangladesh’s capital on Thursday ordered authorities to ask Interpol to issue a red notice for the arrest of a British lawmaker on corruption charges in a private real estate project.
Tulip Siddiq, a former British minister and London MP for Hampstead and Highgate, faces corruption charges in Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commission is prosecuting her.
Siddique has already been sentenced to six years in prison in Bangladesh for three other corruption cases, all involving her powerful aunt, the country’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Hasina was ousted in a massive student-led uprising in 2024, ending her 15-year rule, and has been living in exile in India since August 5, 2024.
Siddique had earlier denied all the charges against her, calling the verdict a “complete farce” and saying she was a British citizen, not a Bangladeshi national.
The commission said Siddiq used his connections with Hasina to influence the process of awarding land in Dhaka’s upmarket Gulshan area to a private company. Siddique is the daughter of Hasina’s sister Sheikh Rehana.
Dhaka City’s Senior Special Judge Mohammad Sabir Faiz issued the order on Thursday based on a petition by the corruption watchdog.
The order was issued after the commission’s assistant director AKM Mortuza Ali Sagar sought the issuance of a red notice through Interpol to facilitate her arrest.
Siddiq did not immediately respond Thursday.
In January last year, Siddique resigned as a minister in British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s cabinet under pressure over his relationship with Hasina. Siddique has said she has been cleared of wrongdoing but will resign as economics minister at the Finance Ministry because the issue is “distracting attention from the work of the government.”
Three days after Hasina stepped down, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus took over as interim leader, eventually presiding over elections on February 12. The new government of Prime Minister Tariq Rahman, the son of Hasina’s main political rival and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, took over.
