In UK, Yunus says no direct communication with British PM

Bangladesh interim government Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus has said that he has had no direct communication with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in connection with the recovery of stolen money allegedly under the previous Hasina regime in Dhaka.

Downing Street sources indicated that no formal meeting had been agreed during the Chief Adviser's visit to London this week.

Yunus told The Financial Times' newspaper that the UK has a moral responsibility to assist Bangladesh in tracing and retrieving funds stolen by the previous regime and allegedly funnelled into Britain.

I have no direct conversation with him, Yunus told the Financial Times' with reference to Starmer. I have no doubt he would support us. This is stolen money We need the support from the people of Great Britain, he said.

The 84-year-old Nobel Laureate took over as the head of the interim government after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in a massive student-led protest in Bangladesh in August last year. She is believed to be living in exile in India since then.

In December, an anti-graft panel in Bangladesh had launched an investigation against Hasina and her family in connection with the allegations of embezzling USD 5 billion in the Rooppur nuclear power plant.

Yunus, who is currently in the UK on a four-day visit, is on a mission to bring out more enthusiastic support, the Chief Adviser added.

Hasina's niece and Labour party MP in UK, Tulip Siddiq, had resigned as a minister in the Starmer Cabinet in the wake of allegations against her family benefitting from Hasina's Awami League regime.

She has denied any wrongdoing and had sought her own meeting with Yunus during his UK visit.

This is a legal issue a legal process. It's not personal involving me, said Yunus, refusing any meeting with Siddiq.

On June 1, Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal indicted Hasina, in absentia, and two others on several charges, including mass murder, for their alleged role in the violent crackdown on student-led protests last year.