Bangladesh leader says Tulip Siddiq should face court and declines to meet her
ITV News Political Correspondent Shehab Khan sat down with Bangladesh's interim leader, Muhammad Yunus
Bangladesh's interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, has urged Labour MP Tulip Siddiq to return to the country and face trial over corruption allegations, rejecting her request for a meeting during his official visit to the UK.
Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist currently heading a caretaker government in Dhaka, declined Siddiq's invitation to discuss the charges brought against her by Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
He told ITV News that any allegations should be dealt with in court, not through political dialogue.
'If she has allegations against her, she should appear in court to face a trial,' Yunus said.
He later added: 'I have not spoken to her. I took it as a legal process and it should be done in a legal way, I should not get involved.'
An arrest warrant was recently issued for Siddiq by Bangladeshi authorities, following accusations that she illegally obtained a 7,200-square-foot plot of land in Dhaka.
The investigation, according to Bangladeshi officials, is separate from an ongoing probe into a controversial nuclear power plant deal involving Siddiq's aunt, Sheikh Hasina, the former Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
Siddiq, MP for Hampstead and Highgate and a former UK Treasury minister, has strongly denied the allegations.
Her legal team described the charges as 'politically motivated' and claimed that attempts to engage with the Bangladeshi authorities had been ignored.
She had written to Yunus ahead of his visit to the United Kingdom, asking to meet, so she could help to 'clear up the misunderstanding perpetuated by the Anti-Corruption Commission in Dhaka.'
In a statement, Siddiq said she was disappointed by Yunus' refusal to meet and accused him of fueling a campaign of politically charged misinformation.
She said: "He's been at the heart of a political vendetta based on fantasy accusations with no evidence relentlessly briefed to the media.
"If this was a serious legal process they would engage with my lawyers rather than sending bogus correspondence to an address in Dhaka where I have never lived.
Siddiq resigned from her ministerial role earlier this year after referring herself to the UK government's ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, in light of the property allegations involving her family.
While Magnus concluded she had not breached the ministerial code, he noted that she should have been 'more alert to the potential reputational risks' posed by her family's ties to Bangladeshi politics.
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