DHAKA: Bangladesh money laundering investigators have ordered the country’s big banks to hand over details of transactions relating to British anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq in an ongoing graft probe, officers said.

Siddiq is the niece of former Bangladeshi premier Sheikh Hasina, who fled abroad last August after a student-led uprising against her iron-fisted tenure. Last month the national anti-corruption commission launched a probe into the alleged embezzlement by Hasina’s family of $5 billion connected to a Russian-funded nuclear power plant.

Two officials from the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) confirmed that Bangladeshi banks had been instructed to furnish any financial records relating to Siddiq. A BFIU document showed that banks had also been told to provide transaction records for Hasina, her son and daughter, Siddiq’s two siblings and her mother Sheikh Rehana. The kickback allegations relate to the $12.65 billion Rooppur nuclear plant, which was bankrolled by Moscow with a 90 per cent loan. “The claims of kickbacks, mismanagement, money laundering, and potential abuse of power raise significant concerns about the integrity of the project and the use of public funds”, the anti-corruption commission said last month when announcing the probe.

The order came a day after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer revealed that Siddiq had referred herself to his standards adviser. Siddiq insists she has done nothing wrong and a spokesman for Starmer said he retains “full confidence” in her.

Ailing former PM Khaleda Zia flown to London for treatment

The referral came after the Sunday Times and Financial Times newspapers reported that she had lived in properties linked to her aunt Sheikh Hasina’s administration. “In recent weeks I have been the subject of media reporting, much of it inaccurate, about my financial affairs and my family’s links to the former government of Bangladesh,” Siddiq wrote in her letter to ministerial standards watchdog Laurie Magnus.

“I am clear that I have done nothing wrong,” she added. “However, for the avoidance of doubt, I would like you to independently establish the facts about these matters.”

Khaleda Zia flown to London

Ailing former Bangladeshi premier Khaleda Zia has flown to London for long-sought medical treatment, a party spokesman said, months after a student-led revolution ousted a government that had prevented her from travelling abroad.

Zia, 79, served as prime minister of the South Asian nation twice but was jailed for corruption in 2018 during the tenure of Sheikh Hasina, her successor and lifelong rival. Hasina’s toppling and exile to neighbouring India after the August revolt against her autocratic government prompted Zia’s release from house arrest.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) spokesman Zahir Uddin Swapan confirmed her departure shortly before midnight on Tuesday.

Zia was seen leaving her residence in a car for the airport in the capital Dhaka, where she departed on a chartered flight provided by the Emir of Qatar. State news agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha quoted her doctors as saying that her treatment in London was expected to take a few months.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2025