DHAKA: Bangladesh’s anti-graft commission has filed cases against ousted leader Sheikh Hasina and her family, including a British government minister and a senior United Nations official, its chief said on Monday.

The cases are linked to an alleged large-scale land grab of lucrative plots in a suburb of the densely populated capital Dhaka. “Sheikh Hasina, in collaboration with some officials, allocated plots for herself and her family members,” Anti-Corruption Comm­ission (ACC) director general Akhter Hossain told reporters.

Hossain said those named in the case also include Hasina’s niece, British anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq. She has insisted she has done nothing wrong. Hasina’s daughter Saima Wazed, the World Health Organisation’s South East Asia chief, is also listed.

“The ACC investigation team has obtained the necessary documents and found sufficient evidence to file the cases,” Hossain said. “They will include relevant details, such as property acquisitions while conducting further investigations.” Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed Joy is also named, as well as Hasina’s sister Sheikh Rehana, Siddiq’s mother.

Starmer urged to fire minister hit by Dhaka probe

Siddiq referred herself this month to the standards adviser of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The referral came after British newspapers the Sunday Times and Financial Times reported that she had lived in properties linked to Hasina’s administration.

Starmer under pressure

Starmer on Monday faced fresh pressure to sack his anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq, amid accusations over her family ties to Bangladesh’s toppled premier. Earlier this month, the UK minister referred herself to Starmer’s standards adviser, following a flurry of allegations including that she lived in properties linked to her aunt and the Awami League party Hasina led.

Asked on Monday whether Siddiq’s position in the UK government remained tenable, senior British minister Pat McFadden told Sky News she had “done the right thing” with the self-referral.

He insisted the standards adviser had the powers to “carry out investigations into allegations like this”. “That is what he is doing, and that is the right way to deal with this,” McFadden said. But UK opposition politicians want Siddiq fired. “I think it’s untenable for her to carry out her role,” the Conservatives’ finance spokesman Mel Stride told Times Radio. “It’s inappropriate for Tulip to be in the position that she holds at the moment. She is the anti-corruption minister in government.”

‘Plain robbery’

In December Siddiq emerged as a named target of a probe by Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission into the alleged embezzlement by Hasina’s family of $5 billion connected to a Russian-funded nuclear power plant.

Money laundering investigators there have since ordered the country’s big banks to hand over details of transactions relating to Siddiq as part of the probe. Siddiq is an MP for a north London seat who is part of the finance ministry and responsible for the UK’s financial services sector as well as anti-corruption measures.

Over the weekend, a Sunday Times investigation revealed details about the claims that Siddiq spent years living in a London flat bought by an offshore company connected to two Bangladeshi businessmen. The flat was eventually transferred as a gift to a Bangladeshi barrister with links to Hasina, her family and her ousted government, according to the newspaper.

It also reported Siddiq and her family were given or used several other London properties bought by members or associates of the Awami League party.

Bangladesh’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Prize-winning microfinance pioneer who heads a caretaker government, demanded a detailed probe in light of the allegations.

He told the newspaper the properties could be linked to wider corruption claims against Hasina’s toppled government, which he said amounted to the “plain robbery” of billions of dollars from Bangladesh’s coffers.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2025