The former City minister Tulip Siddiq has said an arrest warrant issued against her in Bangladesh over allegations she illegally received a plot of land from her aunt, the country’s ousted former prime minister, is a “politically motivated smear campaign”.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, the Hampstead and Highgate MP said: “No one from the Bangladeshi authorities has contacted me. The entire time they’ve done trial by media. My lawyers proactively wrote to the Bangladeshi authorities, they never responded.
“I’m sure you’ll understand I can’t dignify this politically motivated smear campaign with any … comments. It’s a completely politically motivated smear campaign, trying to harass me. There is no evidence that I’ve done anything wrong.”
According to Bangladeshi media reports, a judge issued the warrant for 53 people connected to Sheikh Hasina, Siddiq’s aunt, who stepped down and left the country in August last year after a violent crackdown on protests.
There is no formal extradition treaty between the UK and Bangladesh.
A representative for Siddiq said there was “no basis at all for any charges to be made against her, and there is absolutely no truth in any allegation that she received a plot of land in Dhaka through illegal means”.
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Siddiq resigned as economic secretary to the Treasury in January, citing the risk of becoming a distraction and saying the government was being harmed by the furore over her use of properties given to her and her family by allies of Hasina’s government.
Keir Starmer’s ethics adviser, Laurie Magnus, did not deem her to have broken any rules over her use of the homes and found no evidence to suggest that any of Siddiq’s assets were derived from anything other than legitimate means.
He did, however, find a lack of records and said lapse of time meant he had “not been able to obtain comprehensive comfort in relation to all the UK property-related matters”.
Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission (ACC) has alleged that Siddiq, 42, received a 670 sq metre plot in the diplomatic zone of the capital, Dhaka, through ties to the country’s former rulers, according to the Sunday Telegraph.
The allegation is that Siddiq persuaded her aunt to allocate three plots of land in the exclusive enclave for her family members, including her mother, Sheikh Rehana, her brother Radwan and her younger sister Azmina. The family are all based in Britain.
