A Bangladeshi court has issued an Interpol Red Notice for a Labour MP after she was convicted of corruption.
Tulip Siddiq, MP for Hampstead and Highgate and former anti-corruption minister, has been sentenced to four years in prison for corruption charges by a court in Bangladesh.
Ms Siddiq’s aunt, former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was given a 10-year term by the same court over a corruption case involving a government township project near the capital Dhaka.
Hasina was ousted in 2024 in a student-led mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule and has been in exile in India since August 2024.
Dhaka Metropolitan Senior Special Judge Mohammed Sabbir Faiz issued the order earlier today following a petition by the corruption watchdog.
The order came after the commission’s Assistant Director A.K.M. Mortuza Ali Sagar sought the order for a red notice through Interpol to facilitate her arrest.
Following the verdict, Ms Siddiq said in a statement: “This whole process has been flawed and farcical from the beginning to the end.
“The outcome of this kangaroo court is as predictable as it is unjustified. I hope this so-called ‘verdict’ will be treated with the contempt it deserves.
Sheikh Hasina is the aunt of Labour’s Tulip Siddiq | GETTY
“My focus has always been my constituents in Hampstead and Highgate and I refuse to be distracted by the dirty politics of Bangladesh.”
Labour said senior lawyers had warned that the MP had not been given a “fair legal process” in the case.
A Labour spokesman said: “The Labour Party and all our elected representatives take the rule of law incredibly seriously and will always fulfil our legal responsibilities.
“As has been reported, highly regarded senior legal professionals have highlighted that Tulip Siddiq has not had access to a fair legal process in this case and has never been informed of the details of the charges against her.
“This is despite repeated requests made to the Bangladeshi authorities through her legal team.
“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 judgment.”
Siddiq ‘knows nothing about a hearing in Dhaka relating to her’ | HOUSE OF COMMONS
Ms Siddiq lives in the UK and continues to represent her north London seat in Parliament.
Senior lawyers including former Conservative justice secretary Robert Buckland and ex-attorney general Dominic Grieve have criticised the handling of the case in Bangladesh.
The country’s official corruption watchdog filed the cases alleging that Hasina colluded with government officials to illegally secure six plots in the Purbachal New Town Project for herself and her family members, despite their ineligibility under government regulations.
After a similar case last year, for which Ms Siddiq was given a two-year sentence, the MP said she had been tried by a “kangaroo court” and added she would not be “distracted by the dirty politics of Bangladesh”.
Darren Jones has defended the Highgate and Hampstead MP
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GB NEWSMs Siddiq added: “I feel like I am in some sort of Kafka-esqe nightmare where I am carrying on doing my day job but on the other hand, I am apparently being convicted in Bangladesh.”
Cabinet minister Darren Jones said Ms Siddiq had made it clear that she denies “any wrongdoing whatsoever”.
He told Sky News: “She’s tried to engage, as I understand, with this process in Bangladesh, unsuccessfully and so she’s concluded it’s a kind of more a political operation than a legal one.
“She was obviously not part of that trial or court process in Bangladesh and they concluded, innocence or otherwise, without her.”