AP
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The special court has indicted Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina by accepting allegations of humanitarian crimes filed against her in connection with the massive uprising in which hundreds of students were killed last year.
The three-person panel led by Judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder has charged Hasina, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun on five counts. Hasina and Khan are being tested in their absence.
In response to the panel’s decision, Hasina’s Awami League party condemned the trial process, saying the court was a “kangaroo” court.
The court began trial on June 5th. Authorities have released a newspaper ad asking Hasina and Khan, who are in exile in India, to appear in court. Hasina has been in exile since August 5th.
The Bangladeshi interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus has sent a formal request to India to hand over Hasina, but India has not responded. Khan is probably also in India.
Armamun, who was arrested Thursday and appeared before the panel, pleaded guilty and told the court that he would make a statement in favour of the prosecutors at a later stage.
Chief prosecutor Mohammad Tajl Islam later told reporters that Al Mamun had called the judge a “approver.” It refers to someone who pleads guilty and agrees to testify against an accomplice as a state witness in exchange for potential leniency and sentence.
“The court accepted his plea to be an approvers,” Islam said.
The prosecutor provided leak audio of Hasina and other documents as evidence of the court.
A petition by Amir Hossain, an attorney appointed by the states of Hasina and Khan, was rejected by the court to remove their names from the lawsuit.
The court revised August 3 for the opening statement by the prosecutor and August 4 to record witness statements.
In a post on X, the Awami League accused the Yunus-led administration of manipulating the judiciary.
“People have lost faith in the judicial system as the Yunus administration reduced organs in this important state to the means of prosecuting opponents.” “We condemn the indictment against the party president and other leaders in strong terms, as we argue that this step marks another testimony of the Yunus regime’s ongoing witch hunt against judicial weapons.”
Hasina and the Awami League have previously criticised the courts and their prosecutors’ teams for their ties to political parties, particularly the Jamaat-e-Islami Party.
Prosecutors filed five charges, claiming that Hasina is directly responsible for carrying out actions that lead to mass murder, injuries, target violence against women and children, and refusal to treat those injured.
The accusations describe Hasina as the “mastermind, conductor and superior commander” of the atrocities.
The interim government has amended the relevant laws to ban the Awami League party and allow the trial of the former ruling party for its role during the uprising.
In February, the UN Human Rights Office estimated that up to 1,400 people had died in Bangladesh two weeks after the three-week crackdown on student-led protests against Hasina and the fall of August 5th.
Earlier this month, the court sentenced Hasina to six months in prison after being found in courtroom empty because it allegedly claimed he had a license to kill at least 227 people. In any case against Hasina after she fled to India, the verdict was the first.
The light emptying incident was attributed to leaked audio recordings of supposed telephone conversations between Hasina and the leader of her party’s student wing. People who are said to be Hasina can hear people on the audio saying, “There are 227 cases against me, so I have a license to kill 227 people.”
The court was established by Hasina in 2009 and investigated and attempted crimes in 1971 that involved Bangladesh’s war of independence with Pakistan. The courts under Hasina attempted politicians primarily from the Jamaat-e-Islami party.
India-backed Bangladesh has gained independence from Pakistan under the leadership of Hasina’s father and the country’s first leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
