Bangladesh Starts Trial of Ousted Prime Minister

A special tribunal in Bangladesh began trying ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for crimes against humanity in connection with her harsh crackdown on protests last summer, demonstrations that killed hundreds of students and eventually forced her to flee the country, Al Jazeera reported. 

Prosecutors from the Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) said at the opening of the trial on Sunday that Hasina, who is being tried in absentia, orchestrated a “systematic attack” to try to stop the protests.   

“The accused unleashed all law enforcement agencies and her armed party members to crush the uprising,” said chief prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam. He charged Hasina and two other officials with “abetment, incitement, complicity, facilitation, conspiracy, and failure to prevent mass murder” during the student-led mass demonstrations that took place last summer. 

According to the United Nations, nearly 1,400 Bangladeshis were killed between July and August during Hasina’s brutal crackdown on the protests. She has been charged with crimes against humanity over these killings. 

Hasina has denied the charges as politically motivated and is currently in self-imposed exile in neighboring India, where she fled last August after the protests ended her 15-year rule. 

The ICT is also prosecuting former senior figures connected to Hasina’s ousted government and her now-banned Awami League party, Channel News Asia noted.  

Hasina had set up the ICT in 2009 to investigate crimes connected to Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971. The tribunal tried politicians, especially from the Jamaat-e-Islami party, for crimes related to the nine-month war against Pakistan, the Associated Press wrote. However, it also handed down death sentences to several of Hasina’s rivals and became seen as a means for the former leader to get rid of her opponents. 

In a separate proceeding on Sunday, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court restored the registration of the Jamaat-e-Islami, allowing it to run in the elections. Hasina had previously banned the party.