Former Labour minister Tulip Siddiq has accused the Bangladeshi government of mounting a “focused and baseless” marketing campaign in opposition to her.
In a letter to Bangladesh’s Anti Corruption Fee (ACC), the MP’s legal professionals say allegations of corruption are “false and vexatious” and feature by no means been officially put to her by means of investigators, regardless of being briefed to the media.
Siddiq resigned as financial secretary to the Treasury, with accountability for tackling corruption in the United Kingdom’s monetary markets, in January.
The Hampstead and Highgate MP insisted on the time she had executed not anything improper however that she didn’t need to be a “distraction” to the federal government.
ACC chairman Mohammad Abdul Momen advised the BBC the allegations “are not at all ‘focused and baseless'” and its investigation used to be “in accordance with documentary proof of corruption”.
“Ms Tulip Siddiq should now not shy clear of the from the court docket lawsuits in Bangladesh.
“I’d welcome Ms. Siddiq come and protect her case and with the most efficient conceivable criminal toughen accompanying her,” he added.
He additionally rejected her legal professional’s claims that the ACC used to be interfering in UK politics, including: “ACC briefing to the media is a typical phenomenon, it’s delivered professionally and with all accuracy.”
Siddiq had referred herself to the PM’s ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus when the corruption allegations first surfaced in January.
Sir Laurie mentioned in his document that he had “now not known proof of improprieties”.
However he added it used to be “regrettable” that Siddiq had now not been extra alert to the “doable reputational dangers” of the binds to her aunt Sheikh Hasina, the deposed high minister of Bangladesh and chief of Awami League birthday party.
In a letter accepting her resignation, Top Minister Sir Keir Starmer, a detailed pal of Siddiq who represents a neighbouring constituency in North London, mentioned the “door stays open” to her go back.
The ACC is analyzing claims Sheikh Hasina and her circle of relatives embezzled as much as £3.9bn from infrastructure spending in Bangladesh.
The investigation is in accordance with a chain of allegations made by means of Bobby Hajjaj, a political opponent of Hasina.
Court docket paperwork observed by means of the BBC display Hajjaj has accused Siddiq of serving to to dealer a handle Russia in 2013 that overinflated the cost of a brand new nuclear energy plant in Bangladesh.
In its letter to the ACC, Siddiq’s legal professionals, Stephenson Harwood, repeat her declare that she used to be now not concerned within the nuclear plant deal by any means, regardless of being pictured at a signing rite within the Kremlin in 2013, with Sheikh Hasina and Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“It’s not unusual for members of the family to be invited to accompany Heads of State on state visits,” the letter says, including that she had no wisdom of any alleged monetary irregularities.
It says claims {that a} £700,000 flat in London King’s Go proficient to Siddiq in 2004 used to be “come what may the culmination of embezzlement” have been “absurd” and “can’t be true” as it used to be 10 years prior to the nuclear deal.
In his investigation into the allegations, Sir Laurie Magnus mentioned that “over a longer length, she used to be ignorant of the origins of her possession of her flat in Kings Go, regardless of having signed a Land Registry switch shape when it comes to the reward on the time”.
She “remained beneath the influence that her oldsters had purchased the valuables for her”, Sir Laurie added, however needed to proper the file when she turned into a central authority minister.
He describes this as an “unlucky false impression” which supposed the general public have been “inadvertently misled concerning the identification of the donor of this reward”.
Of their letter to the ACC, Siddiq’s legal professionals ascertain that the King’s Go flat used to be given to her by means of Abdul Motalif, who’s described as “an Iman and an excessively shut circle of relatives pal, comparable to Ms Siddiq’s godfather”.
The letter additionally accommodates an in depth rebuttal of allegations made by means of the ACC to the media that Siddiq used to be concerned within the appropriation of land in Dhaka.
It describes ACC briefings to the media as an “unacceptable try to intervene with UK politics”.
“At no level have any allegations been put to her moderately, correctly and transparently, or certainly in any respect, by means of the ACC or any individual else with correct authority on behalf of the Bangladeshi executive, ” the letter says.
“We require that you just instantly prevent production false and vexatious allegations in opposition to Ms Siddiq and additional media briefings and public feedback designed to hurt her popularity.”
The letter says the ACC should put inquiries to Siddiq “promptly” and “in any match by means of no later than 25 March 2025″ or ” we will presume that there aren’t any reliable questions to reply to”.
The ACC say they have got written a reaction to Siddiq’s legal professionals.
Within the letter, which has been observed by means of the BBC, a spokesman for the ACC claims Siddiq had “spent maximum of her grownup existence living in properties owned by means of cronies of the notoriously venal Awami League” and that this used to be proof she had benefitted from the birthday party’s corruption.
The MP’s “claims to had been ignorant of the character of the Hasina regime” strained credulity, the spokesman added, and the ACC can be involved together with her legal professionals “sooner or later”.
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