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Agence France-Presse

Britain’s Keir Starmer faced fresh pressure on Monday to sack his anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq, as Bangladesh’s corruption watchdog filed new cases against her and her aunt, the country’s ousted leader Sheikh Hasina.
Siddiq, 42, has been dogged by claims about her links to Hasina, who fled Bangladesh last August after a student-led uprising against her decades-long, increasingly authoritarian tenure as prime minister.
Hasina, 77, has defied extradition requests to face Bangladeshi charges including mass murder.
On Monday, Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission announced she and family members including Siddiq were subject to another corruption investigation, this time over an alleged land grab of lucrative plots in a suburb of the capital Dhaka.

Family members including Siddiq had already emerged as named targets of the commission’s investigation into accusations of embezzlement of US$5 billion connected to a Russian-funded nuclear power plant.
Bangladeshi money laundering investigators have since ordered the country’s big banks to hand over details of transactions relating to Siddiq as part of the investigation.
Earlier this month, the UK minister referred herself to Starmer’s standards adviser, following the flurry of allegations, which also included that she lived in properties linked to her aunt’s Awami League party.
Siddiq has insisted that she has done nothing wrong.
Asked on Monday whether her position in the UK government remained tenable, senior British minister Pat McFadden told Sky News she had “done the right thing” with the self-referral.
He insisted the standards adviser had the powers to “carry out investigations into allegations like this”.

“That is what he is doing, and that is the right way to deal with this,” McFadden said.
However, following further accusations in British newspapers over the weekend, UK opposition politicians want Siddiq fired.
“I think it’s untenable for her to carry out her role,” the Conservatives’ finance spokesman Mel Stride told Times Radio on Sunday.
The party’s business spokesman Andrew Griffith sought to focus the spotlight on Starmer, arguing on Monday it was “about the tone at the top”.
“Remember he called himself ‘Mr Rules’, ‘Mr Integrity’,” he told LBC News, referring to Starmer’s pitch to voters before last year’s general election that he represented a break with years of Tory scandals.
Siddiq is an MP for a north London constituency whose ministerial job is part of the finance ministry and responsible for the UK’s financial services sector as well as anti-corruption measures.
Over the weekend, a Sunday Times newspaper investigation revealed details about the claims that she spent years living in a London flat bought by an offshore company connected to two Bangladeshi businessmen.
The flat was eventually transferred as a gift to a Bangladeshi lawyer with links to Hasina, her family and her ousted government, according to the newspaper.
It also reported that Siddiq and her family were given or used several other London properties bought by members or associates of the Awami League party.
Bangladesh’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Prize-winning microfinance pioneer who heads a caretaker government, demanded a detailed investigation in light of the allegations.
He told the newspaper the properties could be linked to wider corruption claims against Hasina’s toppled government, which he said amounted to the “plain robbery” of billions of dollars from Bangladesh’s coffers.


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British MP Tulip Siddiq. Photo: PA via AP

Tulip Siddiq, then-Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in 2013. File photo: AP

Muhammad Yunus, head of Bangladesh’s interim government. File photo: AP

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Hindu activists burn an effigy of Muhammad Yunus, chief adviser of Bangladesh, in Amritsar, India, on December 27. Photo: AFP

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) shakes hand with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina  in New Delhi last year, before her ousting. Photo: AP 

Indian border forces inspect a truck carrying supplies to Bangladesh at the India-Bangladesh border last year. Photo: AFP

Hindu activists burn a poster of Bangladesh interim government chief Muhammad Yunus during a protest in Kolkata last month. Photo: EPA-EFE

Bangladesh seeks return of ex-PM Hasina from India amid US$5 billion embezzlement probe

hen Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, attends the opening of the 60th Munich Security Conference. Photo: dpa

Bangladesh has requested India to return former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled to New Delhi in August, to face charges of embezzling US$5 billion from a Russian-backed nuclear power plant. Photo: AP

Why India is unlikely to extradite ousted Bangladesh leader Sheikh Hasina

Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina checks her watch as she waits for the official opening time to cast her vote in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on January 7, 2024. Photo: AP

A student shouts slogans as demonstrators wave Bangladesh’s national flag during a Martyr March to mark one month since the ousting of Sheikh Hasina, in Dhaka on September 5, 2024. Photo: AFP

Some students, who protested against Sheikh Hasina’s “misrule”, marked her birthday by throwing shoes at a caricatured image of her, on September. 28, 2024. Photo: Shaikh Azizur Rahman

Anti-Hasina graffiti is seen on a wall in Dhaka, drawn by students during the July to August protests. Photo: Shaikh Azizur Rahman

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Police stand guard at a protest march of job seekers demanding the removal of the age limit for job applications in Dhaka on December 11. Photo: dpa

Muhammad Yunus, Chief Adviser of Bangladesh, addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 27. Photo: Reuters

Protesters shout slogans as they celebrate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation, in Dhaka, Bangladesh on August 5. Photo: AP

Police stand guard at a protest march of jobseekers demanding the removal of the age limit for job applications in Dhaka. Photo: dpa

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UK anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq has been dogged by claims about her links to Bangladesh’s ousted leader


UK anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq has been dogged by claims about her links to Bangladesh’s ousted leader.


Bangladesh

Keir Starmer