Labour’s most needed: Bangladeshi courtroom orders Interpol crimson discover for Tulip Siddiq, placing her on checklist alongside terrorists and drug sellers

Former Labour minister Tulip Siddiq faces the prospect of becoming the first British MP to be served with an Interpol ‘red notice’ seeking her arrest.

A court in Bangladesh has requested Interpol’s help in detaining Ms Siddiq on corruption charges.

On Thursday, a senior judge issued a formal red notice request to Interpol after the MP for Hampstead and Highgate failed to respond to a domestic arrest warrant issued in Bangladesh.

The development raises the possibility that the MP, who previously served as an anti-corruption minister, could join Interpol’s most wanted list alongside British terrorists, killers and paedophiles.

A red notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person for extradition to another country for an alleged crime or pending legal action.

In this case, Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) alleges that the Labour MP was ‘illegally rewarded’ with a flat in Dhaka’s upmarket Gulshan district in exchange for her work with the property company that owned the building.

Last year Ms Siddiq was convicted in absentia and sentenced to two years in jail for allegedly working with Sheikh Hasina – her aunt and Bangladesh’s ousted dictator – to secure lucrative plots of land for her family in Dhaka.

In February, she was sentenced to four further years in jail after being found guilty in two other corruption cases.

A senior judge has issued a formal red notice request to Interpol after MP Tulip Siddiq failed to respond to a domestic arrest warrant issued in Bangladesh

Ms Siddiq was convicted in absentia and sentenced to two years in jail for allegedly working with Sheikh Hasina – her aunt and Bangladesh’s ousted dictator

But the 43-year-old has strongly denied the allegations and has described the prosecution as ‘flawed and farcical from beginning to end’.

Interpol currently has 13 Britons on its red notice list who are wanted for appalling crimes, including the notorious White Widow Samantha Lewthwaite who has been accused of involvement in more than 240 murders in multiple terrorist attacks in Africa.

The international police organisation currently has more than 6,400 red notices, which can be circulated internationally within a few hours in urgent cases.

But the organisation, based in France, also rejects around five per cent of requests every year on the grounds that the alleged offence is considered politically motivated, violates human rights laws or does not meet its strict criteria of a serious crime.

Under Interpol’s constitution it is ‘strictly forbidden for the organisation to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character’.

Interpol is likely to spend some time assessing whether the clause applies in Ms Siddiq’s case.

Even if Interpol agrees to circulate the order, the National Crime Agency in Britain does not necessarily have to comply and would have to make its own assessment as to whether the alleged charges fall foul of its own guidelines regarding politically motivated offences.

Experts believe that it is unlikely that Ms Siddiq would face an arrest and extradition in the circumstances as the request would likely be declined on the basis that it is politically motivated.

British terrorist Samantha Lewthwaite, aka the White Widow, is subject of an Interpol red notice like the one requested for Ms Siddiq

But it could be months before Ms Siddiq learns her fate, the Mail understands.

Individuals are also able to challenge red notices through Article 2 of Interpol’s constitution if it is arguable that they would not receive a fair trial.

Last year, Ms Siddiq was forced to resign as anti-corruption minister after the Prime Minister’s standards adviser ruled that she had ‘inadvertently misled’ the public about how she came to acquire a London flat from an ally of her aunt.

Although she did not breach the ministerial code, she stepped down believing that continuing in her role as economic secretary to the Treasury was ‘likely to be a distraction from the work of the Government’.

Mir Ahmad Ali Salam, Bangladesh’s chief prosecution officer confirmed yesterday that the court had made a request to the government for Interpol to issue a red notice.

The notification will then be signed off by local police, but the Mail understands that Interpol has not yet received the request.

The charge sheet against Ms Siddiq and others includes criminal conspiracy, abuse of power and breach of trust.

If convicted, she could face a prison sentence of between three and seven years under Bangladesh’s penal code and Prevention of Corruption Act.

She has not responded to the latest developments.

But in a statement after her sentencing in December, she said: ‘This whole process has been flawed and farcical from the beginning to the end.

‘The outcome of this kangaroo court is as predictable as it is unjustified.

‘I hope this so-called ‘verdict’ will be treated with the contempt it deserves.

‘My focus has always been my constituents in Hampstead and Highgate and I refuse to be distracted by the dirty politics of Bangladesh.’