Bangladesh issues arrest warrant for UK MP linked to Hasina

A UK parliamentarian who is related to ousted Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has denied any wrongdoing after a judge in Dhaka issued an arrest warrant against her on corruption allegations.

Tulip Siddiq, 42, a Labour MP, was accused of illegally receiving a plot of land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital. 

British broadcaster BBC quoted the MP's lawyers as saying the charges against Siddiq were "politically motivated," echoing similar comments made by Hasina's Bangladesh Awami League.

Hasina, Siddiq's aunt, was ousted last year amid mass protests after 15 years at the helm. Hasina is currently living in exile in India.

Numerous corruption allegations

Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has been investigating numerous corruption allegations against Siddiq and her family.

According to media reports, the arrest warrant issued on Sunday related to the allegation that Siddiq illegally received the 7,200 square foot (667 square meter) plot of land near Dhaka.

Siddiq was named in the arrest warrant along with more than 50 others including her mother, Sheikh Rehana, and her brother, Radwan Siddiq, the Prothom Alo newspaper reported.

She was also named in December in another probe against Hasina alleging that Siddiq's family was involved in brokering a 2013 deal with Russia for a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh where large sums of money are thought to have been embezzled.

Siddiq resigned from her post as economic secretary to the UK Treasury in January after an investigation into her links with her aunt's regime by the British prime minister's ethics adviser, Laurie Magnus. 

Although Magnus concluded that Siddiq had not violated the Ministerial Code, he did recommend to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer that her responsibilities in the position, which involved addressing corruption, be reconsidered.

In resigning, Siddiq said she had become a "distraction" from the government's agenda.

Denials from Siddiq's lawyers

Siddiq's lawyers have denied all allegations made against her, and said she had no knowledge of the warrant issued for her arrest.

 "To be clear, there is 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," they said.

"No evidence has been provided by the ACC to support this or any other allegation made against Ms Siddiq, and it is clear to us that the charges are politically motivated," they said.

Siddiq, a former local councilor, was elected lawmaker for the north London district of Hampstead and Highgate in 2015.

She was appointed to the government after Starmer's center-left Labour Party won a landslide victory at elections in July last year.

Edited by: Zac Crellin