CNN
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Bangladesh’s expelled and self-excluded Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was sentenced to six months in the country’s International Crime Court on Wednesday and sentenced to a trial comp trial, prosecutors said.
Hasina has faced multiple lawsuits since fleeing to India after a fatal student-led protest in August, but it was the first time a former leader has been sentenced by one of them.
Shakil Akhand Bulbul, the leader of the Awami League party’s banned student Wingchhatra League, was also sentenced to two months in the same case, Islamic Prosecutor Muhammad Tajur told reporters. The party was led by Hasina for years.
The three ICT courts led by Judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder said the verdict would be effective upon arrest or surrender, and the prosecutor added that they had verified in their absence.
The light emptying comes from leaked phone recordings where Hasina is said to have said, “There are 227 cases against me, so I have a license to kill 227 people.”
Forensic reports from government investigators later confirmed the authenticity of the audio.
ICT was founded in 2010 by Hasina’s own government in 2010 to test the war crimes of 1971.
The Bangladeshi interim government led by Nobel Prize winner Mohammed Yunus has pledged to retain leaders, including Hasina, and has been responsible for abuse and corruption of rights, including the crackdown on the student-led uprising that overthrew Hasina’s regime in July last year.
The court has so far issued three arrest warrants for Hasina, including charges of crimes against humanity related to the violence in July. Hasina’s Awami League party remains banned, as trials against the party and its former leaders continue.
Hasina supporters dismiss the charges as politically motivated, but the interim government argues that the trial is important to restore accountability and rebuild trust in Bangladesh’s democratic system.
