Zakir Hossain / Dhaka
Former UK Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq, niece of ousted Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina, has dismissed corruption charges against her as “completely absurd”, claiming she is “collateral damage” in the political feud between Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus and her aunt (Sheikh Hasina).
In an interview with The Guardian, the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate said she learnt of her formal indictment in Bangladesh from a journalist who contacted her lawyer just over a week ago. “I’m supposedly days away from a showcase trial in a foreign country, and I still don’t know what the charges are against me,” she said, calling the situation a “Kafkaesque nightmare”.
Tulip, 42, who resigned from her ministerial post in January, has been accused of using her influence as Hasina’s niece to secure a plot of land for her mother, brother and sister in Dhaka’s Purbachal. She is to be tried in absentia along with more than 20 others, with the trial scheduled for August 11. “There’s no extradition treaty, I looked that up myself actually,” she remarked.
Media reports have also linked her to alleged embezzlement of $5 billion from a Russian-backed nuclear power plant deal during Hasina’s tenure— allegations fuelled by a 2013 photograph of Tulip with Hasina and Vladimir Putin in Moscow. “I met Putin for two minutes… we were sightseeing,” she said.
Another controversy involves a flat in London’s King’s Cross, which Tulip previously said was bought by her parents but was later found to have been given by her godfather. She blamed the earlier statement on her elderly parents’ faulty memory. UK authorities have also frozen nearly £90 million worth of London property linked to two men associated with Hasina— including one where Tulip’s mother once lived— which she says has “nothing to do” with her.
Tulip, a close ally of UK PM Keir Starmer, said she stepped down from government to avoid distraction despite Starmer’s continued support. “I can’t help who my aunt is… it’s a bit like saying you should have been aware of your birth,” she said, responding to advice that she should have been more alert to reputational risks from her family ties.
Since Hasina’s ouster following student-led protests that left hundreds dead, Yunus’ interim government has faced criticism over delayed elections and alleged abuses. Tulip said she sought to meet Yunus in the UK, but he refused, citing judicial process. “The truth is that I’m collateral damage… There’s no doubt people have done wrong things in Bangladesh, and they should be punished for it. It’s just I’m not one of them,” she said.