Bangladesh ex-PM Sheikh Hasina charged with mass murder as trial begins

Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and two others were on Sunday (June 1) indicted by the country’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) on several charges, including mass murder, for their alleged role in the violent crackdown on student-led protests last year.

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The proceedings on Sunday marked the start of Hasina’s trial in absentia nearly 10 months after the ouster of her government following the protests.

In a first, the ICT allowed the live broadcast of the hearing on state-run BTV.

‘Systematic attack’

“We do hereby take into cognisance the charges,” the three-judge ICT Bench said after a prosecution team formally accused them of attempting to tame the protests using brutal force.

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“Upon scrutinising the evidence, we reached the conclusion that it was a coordinated, widespread and systematic attack,” Mohammad Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor at ICT told the court.

“The accused unleashed all law enforcement agencies and her armed party members to crush the uprising,” Islam said.

Fresh warrant against Hasina

The tribunal simultaneously issued a fresh arrest warrant against Hasina and then home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal.

The third accused, the then inspector general of police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, is in custody to stand trial in person.

The prosecution charged Hasina with exercising absolute authority to ruthlessly suppress the uprising. The two others were accused of provocation, complicity, abatement, instigation and facilitation.

All three were accused of superior command responsibility for the crimes.

If convicted, Hasina could face death penalty

Chief Prosecutor Tajul Islam urged the court to treat the Awami League as a criminal organisation since the crimes were committed on a partisan basis.

Under the ICT-BD law, if convicted, Hasina and the co-accused could face the death penalty.

The proceedings of the tribunal were broadcast live on television for the first time in Bangladesh's history.

The proceedings were scheduled to begin at 9.30 am but were slightly delayed as unidentified people hurled three crude bombs at the gate of the tribunal hours before the beginning of the trial.

Police said two of the bombs exploded while the third was defused while they were trying to identify and arrest the miscreants, examining CCTV footage.

Over 1,000 people killed

Ousted on August 5 last year after the agitation, Hasina faces multiple cases in Bangladesh.

The ICT-BD earlier issued an arrest warrant against Hasina while the interim government sought her repatriation from India in a diplomatic note. New Delhi has only acknowledged receipt with no further comment.

Most senior leaders and officials of Hasina’s party and government were arrested to face charges like mass murder during the July-August protests last year that left hundreds of people, including students and policemen, dead.

According to a UN rights office report, some 1,400 people were killed between July 15 and August 15 last year as violence continued even after the fall of Hasina's Awami League regime.

(With agency inputs)