By Staff Correspondent, Dhaka –
A special tribunal in Bangladesh has begun trial of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and two of her aides for their alleged roles in suppressing last year’s violent mass uprising that ousted her government.
A three-member panel of judges of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) headed by Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder on Thursday ordered the commencement of the trial against Hasina, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, and the former chief of police force Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun.
The tribunal fixed August 3 for prosecution’s opening statement and August 4 for taking witnesses statement.
Mamun, who is detained in custody, has pleaded guilty and petitioned to turn to be state’s witness in the case in the later stage.
The trial will proceed with the two other accused in absentia.
The trio were accused in a case concerning crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the last year’s student-led protests. The protests that were initially began in July to demand elimination of public job quota system eventually turned into a mass uprising that ousted Hasina’s government in August 5, 2024.
Hasina, who has been exiled in India since she fled the country after removal, is facing multiple cases related to the violent suppression of the protests. A UN fact finding mission estimates some 1,400 people were killed during the nationwide protests.
“The crimes committed in Bangladesh (during the protests), and the allegations we have presented, are both widespread and systematic —clearly constituting crimes against humanity,” said Islam.
A total of five charges have been brought against the three accused, he said adding that the charges included incitement, provocation, and orders to kill 1,400 people in an effort to suppress the protests, along with “superior command responsibility” and “joint criminal enterprise.”
In support of these charges, the prosecution submitted audio recordings of Sheikh Hasina allegedly instructing the use of lethal weapons against protesters, as well as other evidence and witness testimonies.
Chief prosecutor Islam said these crimes were systematic, because they were carried out in the same manner nationwide under a single directive.
The order came from the then prime minister, and following a chain of command, the police and auxiliary forces executed the crimes in the same pattern everywhere, he said.
With this, the trial of the first case of crimes against humanity against Hasina has officially begun.
The proceedings are being held in a tribunal that her government originally established in 2010 to prosecute individuals allegedly involved in atrocities committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of liberation from Pakistan.
