Sheikh Hasina’s niece Tulip Siddiq may sue Bangladesh’s anti-corruption body

Sheikh Hasina's niece, Tulip Siddiq, thrice elected a British Labour party MP, was last month convicted by a Dhaka court.

Ousted Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed’s niece, Tulip Siddiq, 43, who was compelled to resign as a minister in the British government, because of allegations of corruption against her by the current regime in Dhaka, is “taking legal advice“ on suing Bangladeshi authorities, according to a person close to her.

Tulip Siddiq (left) and former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina. (AP)

Siddiq, thrice elected a British Labour party MP, was last month convicted by a Dhaka court for irregularly obtaining a plot of land for her family near the Bangladesh capital.

Her lawyers Stephenson Harwood had warned Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) that she reserves “her rights in full” about “the false and vexatious allegations made by the ACC and the harm that has been caused to her”. They described the campaign against her as “unlawful” and intended “to smear Miss Siddiq’s reputation and interfere with her public service”.

The chairman of the ACC Mohammed Abdul Momen told the BBC on record that his commission’s investigations were “based on documentary evidence of corruption”. However, one of ACC’s prosecutors who briefed news media after the court’s verdict against Siddiq said certain individuals had implicated Siddiq based on what they had heard. In effect, contrary to Momen’s assertion, no documentary evidence was presented against Siddiq; and there was apparently no clarification as to whether the mentioned statements were verified for admissibility.

An ACC media note sent to “a British journalist on 4 February (2025)” -- as per Siddiq’s lawyers -- stated, “Accusations have been made that (US)$5 billion was embezzled from the overpriced Rooppur nuclear power plant project (awarded to a Russian company) via various offshore bank accounts in Malaysia, implicating former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her son Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy, and her niece Tulip Siddiq.” It further maintained: “Allegedly, [Ms Siddiq] received a £700,000 luxury flat as part of a scheme involving misappropriated funds from various infrastructure projects, including the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.”

Stephenson Harwood pointed out to the ACC: “The first thing to note about the ACC media note is that it appears to be based in large part on “accusations” and “reports”, but does not identify who has made such accusations and reports, where and when.”

They stressed: “She had absolutely no involvement in the agreement between Bangladesh and Russia for Rosatom (a Russian corporation) to construct the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant… She has not received a (UK)£700,000 flat in the UK or indeed any property whatsoever connected in any way to the power plant project.”

They added: “It is true that a property located in King’s Cross (London) was gifted to her in 2004. However, this was some 10 years before the agreement to build the power plant was entered into between Bangladesh and Russia… What is more, you will be aware that Sheikh Hasina was not even Prime Minister of Bangladesh in 2004.”

Siddiq declared the gift in in MPs’ Register of Financial Interests, as required of members of Britain’s House of Commons.

Siddiq disclosed the donor of the property was an Abdul Motalif, who she understood purchased it in 2001 for UK£195,000. Motalif performed the Muslim blessing at her wedding to Christian Percy, a strategy consultant who worked in the British Foreign Office.

On 14 January 2025, Siddiq quit as Economic Secretary to the Treasury in the British government. In accepting her resignation with “sadness”, Prime Minister Keir Starmer observed that the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards, Sir Laurie Magnus, had assured him that “he found no breach of the Ministerial Code and no evidence of financial improprieties on [her] part”.

On 13 April 2025, though, the ACC issued an arrest warrant against her in its investigation into land allegedly illegally allocated to her family in Dhaka. She was ordered to comply by 27 April. The ACC threatened her with an Interpol Red Notice if she didn’t.

On 15 April, Stephenson Harwood wrote to Momen, describing the ACC’s attitude as “extraordinary and wholly inconsistent with due process and fair procedure… without making any contact at all with Ms Siddiq or her lawyers”. It added, ”Such behaviour is a clear breach of international norms and indicative of the way that Ms Siddiq is going to be treated by the ACC and the Bangladesh authorities.”

The law firm further communicated, “We request that you immediately provide us with a copy of the arrest warrant and all supporting information and evidence laid before the court including full details of the charges against our client… as well as the “documentary evidence of corruption” you claim to possess.“The ACC is not known to have replied to any of Stephenson Harwood’s correspondence.

Emily Thornberry, MP, chairperson of the House of Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee, seemingly asked the Bangladeshi High Commissioner to Britain, Abida Islam, for the address of the Bangladesh court which summoned Siddiq. Islam is said to have told Thornberry she would send the details. The latter was yet to receive the information.

On 24 November, senior British barristers – Geoffrey Robertson, a leading human rights advocate, Cherie Blair, wife of erstwhile British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former Conservatives party cabinet ministers, Dominic Grieve, Sir Robert Buckland and David Gauke, and Professor Philippe Sands of University College London – expressed “profound concern” to Abida Islam, about the proceedings against Siddiq. “It is a basic principal of justice that every individual charged with a crime is entitled to know the allegations and evidence against them,” they said.

Yet on 1 December, Siddiq was in absentia found guilty of influencing her aunt to allocate land to her mother – Hasina’s younger sister Sheikh Rehana Siddiq. Tulip was sentenced to two years imprisonment.

After the verdict, ACC prosecutors met journalists to brief them about the evidence that had been had produced to secure Siddiq’s conviction. One journalist asked, “Are you saying Tulip Siddiq sent Whatsapp messages?” A prosecutor replied, “No. Mr Osman Gani and (Iqbal) Hussain, they made the statement before the magistrate that Tulip Siddiq made communication with Mr Salahuddin (Ahmed), personal secretary… of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and she (Siddiq) instigated, she provoked, she poked to make allotment to her mother, sister and brother.”

Journalist: “How did she make these messages?” Prosecutor: “They were present there and they heard it.”

Journalist: “Are you saying these were face to face meetings or Whatsapp messages?“ Prosecutor: “Telephone or any other apps; they stated that they communicated with Tulip Siddiq.”

Journalist: “Do you have any screenshots of the Whatsapp messages?” Prosecutor: “No we don’t have any screenshot.”

Journalist: “When were these messages sent?“ Prosecutor: “It has been heard by Osman Ghani and Iqbal Hossain who were very close to Mr Salahuddin Ahmed and Mr Salahuddin Ahmed was very close to Tulip Siddiq, Sheikh Rehana and Sheikh Hasina and other members of the family.”

Asked about Osman Ghani and Iqbal Hossain, who it would appear submitted witness statements against her to the court, Siddiq said it was an irony that she had no idea who either were and that she had never met anyone called Osman Ghani or Iqbal Hossain.

Regarding Salahuddin Ahmed, she believes he was Hasina’s private secretary and may have once been in the same room with him; but added, that if she wanted to contact her aunt, she would just message her directly -- there would be no need for her to go through her staff or her private secretary.

The British Labour party reacted: “Anyone facing any charge should always be afforded the right to make legal representations when allegations are made against them. Given that has not happened in this case, we cannot recognise this judgement.”

In May 2025, it was reported by the UK’s Guardian newspaper that Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA), the country’s serious and organised crime agency, had frozen assets worth around £400 million in Britain allegedly owned by allies of Hasina. They included a property in London where Rehana has lived rent free, quoting the Financial Times. The Guardian emphasised: “There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Siddiq (presumably meaning Rehana), who is understood to have recused herself from any policymaking relating to Bangladesh.“Rehana is now in India.

On 4 June, Tulip Siddiq wrote to Professor Muhammad Yunus, then and still Bangladesh’s de facto prime minister --- who was about to visit London – inviting him to “lunch or afternoon tea at the House of Commons”. She said, “I’ve always been interested by your historic work on economic and social development.”

She then continued, “A meeting might also help clear up the misunderstanding perpetuated by the Anti-Corruption Commission in Dhaka that I have questions to answer in relation to my mother’s sister, the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina.” She asserted, ”I have no property nor any business interests whatsoever in Bangladesh. The country is dear to my heart but it is not the country where I was born, live in or have built my career in.”

BBC put it to Yunus, “She’s (Siddiq has) asked to meet you while you are here (in London). Will you meet her?”

Yunus replied, “No, I’m not (going to meet her), because it’s a legal procedure. I don’t want to interrupt the legal procedure. Let the procedure continue.”

High Commissioner Abida Islam reiterated what she had told British media, that Siddiq had “falsely claimed that no summons, charge sheet, or correspondence was ever sent to her... Ms Siddiq was tried as a Bangladeshi citizen, who happens to be a British citizen... All official documents pertaining to the case in question were sent to her Bangladeshi address on record, as required by law.”