A special court sued Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday, accepting charges against human crimes against her in connection with her massive uprising, with hundreds of students killed last year.
A three-member team led by Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder was indicted by Hasina, former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun charged five charges. Hasina and Khan are trying in their absence.
The prosecution filed five charges that Hasina was directly responsible for ordering all state forces, her Awami Coalition Party and colleagues to take action, resulting in mass killings, injuries, targeted violence against women and children, incineration of bodies and medical treatment for injured injuries.
The accusation describes Hasina, 77, as a “planner, commander and superior commander” of the atrocities.
Seven months ago, student-led protests overthrew the Bangladesh government. Now, protests continue, inflation doubles, crime is rising, and hopes for real change are decreasing.
The Provisional Government has banned the AWAMI Coalition and has amended relevant laws to allow the trial of the former ruling party’s role in the uprising.
In February, the UN Human Rights Office estimated that as many as 1,400 people in Bangladesh could have killed students for three weeks in Bangladesh in the crackdown on student-led protests against Hasina and two weeks after the fall on August 5.
Since the removal, the court opened its trial on June 5 and demanded that Hasina be exiled in India.
The interim government of Bangladesh, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, made a formal request to India for the extradition of Hasina, but India did not respond.
Al-Mamun was arrested and charged on Thursday at the dock. Al-Mamun pleaded guilty and told the court that he would issue a statement at a later stage.
Next month’s trial
The prosecutor provided the court with audio of leaked Hasina and other documents. The BBC said earlier this week that it had obtained the audio they published and broadcast, and she seemed to empower security forces to use deadly power when necessary.
Amir Hossain, a lawyer appointed by the state-appointed Hasina and Hasina, appeared at the hearing Thursday and filed a petition to remove his name from the case, but the court refused the request.
After a month of violent unrest, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country. Andrew Chang explains how the student-led protests on government posts turned into a huge and deadly movement that eventually led the government to overthrow the government.
The court then revised the prosecutor’s opening ceremony on August 3 and recorded witness statements on August 4.
Earlier this month, the court was sentenced to six months in jail for allegedly claiming that it had permission to kill at least 227 people.
The case stems from a leaked recording of a call between Hasina and the leader of the party’s student wing. A person allegedly Hasina heard on the audio say, “There are 227 cases against me, so I now have permission to kill 227 people.”
Hasina established the court in 2009 to investigate and attempt to investigate and attempt crimes involving Bangladesh’s war of independence against Pakistan. The court under Hasina tried politicians, mainly from the Jamaat-e-Islami party, in an attempt to take action in the nine-month war.
With the help of India, Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan under the leadership of Hasina’s father and the country’s first leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Hasina herself served as the leader for 15 years, marking economic development but also accused of human rights violations. Her administration is accused of unfairly mocking opposition politicians, sometimes holding elections that are considered neither free nor fair.
Hasina and her Awami League have previously criticized the court and its prosecution panel for links with political parties, especially Jamaat-e-Islami.
