\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no extradition treaty, I looked that up myself actually,\u201d says Tulip Siddiq, the MP for Hampstead and Highgate and a Treasury minister until her resignation in January.<\/p>\n
Just over a week ago, Siddiq, 42, a Keir Starmer loyalist, learned via a journalist who had contacted her lawyer that she had been formally indicted in Bangladesh for corruption.<\/p>\n
She has been charged with using her influence as the niece of Sheikh Hasina, the ousted prime minister of the south Asian country, to secure a plot of land for her mother, brother and sister in Purbachal in Dhaka, the capital. \u201cCompletely absurd,\u201d Siddiq says in her first interview about the saga.<\/p>\n
A trial date has been set for 11 August for her and more than 20 others. Could she make an appearance in person or by videolink?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m taking advice from Hugo Keith KC, who\u2019s advising me on what my next steps are,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m yet to see an official summons \u2026 I mean, I\u2019m supposedly days away from a showcase trial in a foreign country, and I still don\u2019t know what the charges are against me. I feel a bit like I\u2019m trapped in this Kafkaesque nightmare where I\u2019ve been put on trial and I genuinely haven\u2019t found out what the allegations are and what the trial is about.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bangladeshi authorities have said that they will try Siddiq in absentia if necessary. The position on extradition between Bangladesh and the UK may yet be tested if there is a conviction.<\/p>\n
For a few months last year, after Labour\u2019s victory in the July general election, Siddiq, a veteran of the party who was a councillor before becoming an MP, was in her element.<\/p>\n
Appointed by Starmer \u2013 a friend whose constituency neighbours her own \u2013 as economic secretary to the Treasury and City minister, she got stuck into a review of the financial services. \u201cI loved it, and I was good at it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Five thousand miles away, after 15 years in power, her aunt\u2019s regime was falling apart in the face of student-led protests.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Demonstrators filled the streets in Dhaka to protest against Sheikh Hasina\u2019s regime.<\/span> Photograph: Fatima Tuj Johora\/SOPA Images\/REX\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n After an outcry over the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of people demonstrating against what they said was an increasingly autocratic and cruel administration, Hasina and Siddiq\u2019s mother, Sheikh Rehana, who was in the country at the time, fled the Bangladeshi capital in a military helicopter to India.<\/p>\n It was, Siddiq admits, a scary time. Hasina\u2019s entire family, apart from her husband, children and sister, were murdered during the 15 August 1975 Bangladeshi coup d\u2019\u00e9tat in which Siddiq\u2019s grandfather, the first president of Bangladesh, was assassinated.<\/p>\n But, in the summer of 2025, life for Siddiq and her husband, Chris Percy, a strategic consultant, and their two children carried on as normal. \u201cI\u2019m not here to defend my aunt,\u201d she says. \u201cI know there\u2019s an investigation going on about how her term in government ended. And I really hope the people of Bangladesh get the closure that they want.\u201d<\/p>\n It was only at the end of last year, with a new government established in Dhaka under Muhammad Yunus, an economist and the bitterest of rivals to Hasina, that what Siddiq describes as the \u201cdirty politics\u201d of Bangladesh turned her life on its head.<\/p>\n <\/span>Mohammad Yunus, a bitter rival to Sheikh Hasina, succeeded her as prime minister of Bangladesh. Siddiq says the \u2018dirty politics\u2019 of his regime turned her life on its head.<\/span> Photograph: Andy Hall\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Stories started to appear on obscure websites accusing her of embezzling $5bn from a deal made by her aunt with a Russian company to build the Rooppur nuclear power plant in Bangladesh.<\/p>\n A photograph from 2013 of a smiling Siddiq with her aunt and Vladimir Putin in Moscow offered a fresh whiff of impropriety.<\/p>\n \u201cMy aunt went on a state visit to Russia, and my sister and I decided to travel from London to go see her in Russia,\u201d she says. \u201cI was not involved in any sort of political discussions. We were sightseeing, and we were having a good time, just going to restaurants, shopping. Then on the last day, all the politicians who were there, their families were invited to a tea and reception, and a photo was taken. I met Putin for two minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>A photograph from 2013 of Siddiq with her aunt and Vladimir Putin resurfaced last year as stories started to appear that accused Siddiq of embezzling $5bn.<\/span> Photograph: Mikhail Metzel\/AP<\/p>\n A new story emerged that Siddiq had been gifted a flat in King\u2019s Cross in 2004 by \u201can associate of people linked\u201d to her aunt\u2019s political party, the Awami League.<\/p>\n The flat\u2019s former owner, her godfather, was not political or known to her aunt and \u201cmuch to my dismay, he\u2019s never voted\u201d, she says.<\/p>\n The problem for her was that two years previously she had told an enquiring newspaper that her parents had bought the flat for her.<\/p>\n It was a mistake, grounded in the failing memory of her elderly parents, who separated a quarter of a century ago, she says.<\/p>\n New questions were then raised as to why she was living in a house owned by a Bangladeshi-heritage property developer who she says she met through the Labour party, when she owns a home in Cricklewood.<\/p>\n <\/span>Sheikh Hasina fled Bangladesh with her sister, Siddiq\u2019s mother, for India, after an outcry at the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of protesters. <\/span> Photograph: Monirul Alam\/EPA<\/p>\n It was because she had been warned of a security threat, she says. A man being held on terrorism charges had suggested that Siddiq was the reason for his plight.<\/p>\n It was the year the Tory MP David Amess had been murdered at work. She had been advised to move out and had relied on someone she knew due to the suddenness of it all.<\/p>\n She was paying full market rent but mud was flying, often thrown from the authorities in Bangladesh. Some of it was starting to stick. Siddiq referred herself to Sir Laurie Magnus, the independent adviser on ministerial standards.<\/p>\n After two weeks of \u201cintense\u201d daily meetings going through Siddiq\u2019s finances, Magnus cleared her of breaking the ministerial code.<\/p>\n He added that it was \u201cregrettable that she was not more alert to the potential reputational risks\u201d that arose from her familial ties and her government role.<\/p>\n The line is evidently irritating to her. \u201cI can\u2019t help who my aunt is at the end of the day,\u201d she says. \u201cIt is a strange line because it is a bit like saying you should have been aware of your birth and how you were born.\u201d<\/p>\n She resigned in order to stop the story from being a distraction for the government despite Starmer\u2019s continued support, she says.<\/p>\n <\/span>Siddiq resigned from Keir Starmer\u2019s government to stop herself being a distraction as allegations continued to be made against her.<\/span> Photograph: UK Parliament\/Jessica Taylor\/PA<\/p>\n He made it clear that she could return one day. \u201cHe did make a joke and say, \u2018In the previous administration, even people who had broken the ministerial code still stayed on, you know that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n But allegations have continued to fly and Siddiq\u2019s lawyers\u2019 attempts to get clarity have not been rewarded, she says.<\/p>\n There is certainly scant evidence of a renewed Bangladesh since Hasina\u2019s regime fell. The promised elections are yet to happen. Lawyers at Doughty chambers have been compiling evidence of abuses for the international criminal court, including \u201cunprovoked and violent attacks against journalists, police officers, minorities and those connected with the former government party, the Awami League\u201d.<\/p>\n Siddiq tried to meet Yunus during his visit to the UK this year. He dismissed it, saying it would prejudice the judicial process. Meanwhile, the UK\u2019s serious and organised crime agency has frozen almost \u00a390m of London property belonging to two men linked to Hasina, including one property in which Siddiq\u2019s mother lived and still has possessions. Nothing to do with her, Siddiq says.<\/p>\n \u201cThe truth is that I\u2019m collateral damage, because of this feud between Muhammad Yunus and my aunt,\u201d she says. \u201cThese are wider forces that I\u2019m battling against \u2026 There\u2019s no doubt people have done wrong things in Bangladesh, and they should be punished for it. It\u2019s just I\u2019m not one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Quick Guide<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>Show<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know.<\/p>\n If you have something to share on this subject you can contact us confidentially using the following methods.<\/p>\n Secure Messaging in the Guardian app<\/strong><\/p>\n The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.<\/p>\n If you don’t already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS\/Android) and go to the menu. Select \u2018Secure Messaging\u2019. <\/p>\n SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post<\/strong><\/p>\n See our guide at theguardian.com\/tips\u00a0for alternative methods and the pros and cons of each.\u00a0<\/p>\n Illustration: Guardian Design \/ Rich Cousins<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThere\u2019s no extradition treaty, I looked that up myself actually,\u201d says Tulip Siddiq, the MP for Hampstead and Highgate and a Treasury minister until her resignation in January. Just over a week ago, Siddiq, 42, a Keir Starmer loyalist, learned via a journalist who had contacted her lawyer that she had been formally indicted in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[8626,8623,3539,2301,1241,124,8625,2131,8624],"class_list":{"0":"post-15024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-bangladesh","9":"tag-collateral","10":"tag-corruption","11":"tag-damage","12":"tag-exminister","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-siddiq","15":"tag-trial","16":"tag-tulip"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Contact us about this story<\/h4>\n