Many people have done wrong in Bangladesh, they should be tried

Published : 19:36, 11 August 2025
Tulip Siddique, the former British Treasury Minister and Labour MP for Hampstead-Highgate, who is accused in a corruption case, has said that many people have done wrong in Bangladesh, they should be tried. She made this comment in an interview with the The Guardian.
Tulip said, many people have done wrong in Bangladesh, they should be tried. But I am not one of them. She claims that she is a victim of political revenge and has no connection with the ongoing corruption case in Bangladesh. The hearing of the case against Tulip and 20 others is scheduled to begin in a special court in Dhaka on August 11.
Tulip has been accused of allocating a plot in Purbachal, Dhaka, for her mother, brother and sister by using Sheikh Hasina's influence. She claimed that this is 'completely unrealistic'. Tulip said, I have not received any formal summons yet. I am being tried in a farce abroad in a few days, but I do not know what the charges are. Bangladeshi authorities have said that if necessary, the case will be tried in Tulip's absence. Although Bangladesh does not have an extradition treaty with Britain, the matter could be reconsidered if she is found guilty.
After the Labour Party won the general election in July last year, Prime Minister Keir Starmer gave Tulip the responsibility of the finance ministry. She was playing an active role in economic reforms and the reassessment of the City of London's financial sector. But at the same time, a student-led movement led to the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in Bangladesh after 15 years of rule. Sheikh Hasina and her sister Sheikh Rehana fled to India in a military helicopter in the face of strong protests over the deaths of hundreds of people and accusations of authoritarian rule. In the context of this political unrest, various controversies arose around Tulip's name.
He said that after the fall of Prime Minister Hasina, Dr. When the new government led by Muhammad Yunus came to power, the ‘dirty politics of Bangladesh’ turned his life upside down. News began to appear on some unknown websites that he had embezzled $5 billion from the Russian contract for the Rooppur nuclear power project. A 2013 photo showed Hasina, Putin and Tulip together. This was linked to the allegations. But Siddique said that he was on a trip to Moscow at the time and did not attend any political meetings.
In a separate allegation, it is said that in 2004, Tulip received a flat in London’s Kings Cross as a gift from an Awami League associate. He claimed that the flat belonged to his godfather, who is not involved in politics. In the past, due to his parents’ faulty memories, he had given false information to the media that his parents had bought the flat. Besides, questions were raised about why he was living in the house of a Bangladeshi developer despite having his own house in Cricklewood. Siddique said he had to move suddenly because of security threats and had paid the market rent.
He himself went to the cabinet’s code of conduct adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, to stop the controversy. After a two-week investigation, Magnus said Siddique had not broken the code of conduct but should have been aware of the “potential reputational risk” from the family relationship. Despite Starmer’s support, Tulip Siddique resigned from the ministry so as not to cause confusion in the government’s work. Starmer assured her of her future return.
Promised elections have not yet been held in Bangladesh. Lawyers for the International Criminal Court are gathering evidence of violence, attacks on journalists and minorities, and repression against Awami League members. Tulip tried to meet Dr. Muhammad Yunus, who is visiting Britain, but he refused.
Meanwhile, Britain’s crime branch has seized London assets worth nearly £90 million belonging to two people close to Sheikh Hasina, including a house where Tulip’s mother lived. He said that he had nothing to do with it. The truth is, I am just a side effect of the dispute between Dr. Muhammad Yunus and my aunt. Many people have done wrong in Bangladesh, they should be tried. But I am not one of them.