Justice in Exile

The United Nations human rights office on Wednesday accused former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her administration of possible “crimes against humanity” over the government’s crackdown against the student-led demonstrations last year, Al Jazeera reported.

The accusations follow a report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the protests in Bangladesh between July 1 and Aug. 15 last year, when the country was grappling with mass protests against Hasina’s 15-year rule.

The demonstrations initially began over a proposal to change public sector job quotas but later evolved into large-scale anti-government protests. Hasina and her ruling Awami League launched a crackdown against demonstrators that resulted in hundreds of deaths.

In its findings, the UN said the government oversaw a systematic crackdown on protesters in order “to ensure its continuation in power.” It added that there were “reasonable grounds to believe that the crimes against humanity of murder, torture, imprisonment and infliction of other inhumane acts” took place.

The UN office also estimated that the number of deaths was “as many as 1,400 people,” noting that the majority were killed by Bangladeshi authorities and that up to 13 percent of those killed were children.

The figure is even higher than the interim government’s recent estimate of 834.

UN human rights chief Volker Türk said some violations could amount to international crimes, potentially prosecutable by the International Criminal Court (ICC), according to UN News.

Bangladesh is a member of the ICC, which handles cases such as genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

However, Hasina is currently in exile in India – which is not a member of the tribunal – and has defied arrest warrants to face trial in Bangladesh for crimes against humanity.

The UN report came as Bangladesh’s leading rights group Odhikar found that at least 12 people died in detention between August and December, with the cause of death for some victims listed as torture or gunshot wounds.