Bangladesh ex-PM Sheikh Hasina indicted over deaths of hundreds of students

A special tribunal indicted Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday by accepting charges of crimes against humanity filed against her in connection with a mass uprising in which hundreds of students were killed last year.

A three-member panel, headed by Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder, indicted Hasina, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun on five charges. 

Responding to the panel’s decision, Hasina’s Awami League party condemned the trial process and said the tribunal was a “kangaroo” court.

The tribunal opened the trial on June 5. Authorities published newspaper advertisements asking Hasina, who has been in exile in India, and Khan to appear before the tribunal. Hasina has been in exile since Aug. 5.

Al-Mamun, who was arrested and appeared before the panel on Thursday, pleaded guilty and told the tribunal that he would make a statement in favor of the prosecution at a later stage.

Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam later told reporters that Al-Mamun appealed to the judges to be an “approver.” It refers to a person who pleads guilty and who, in exchange for potential leniency or a reduced sentence, agrees to testify against their accomplices as a state witness.

“The tribunal accepted his plea to be an approver,” Islam said.

A ‘mastermind, conductor’

Hasina and the Awami League has previously criticized the tribunal and its prosecution team for connections to political parties, especially the Jamaat-e-Islami party.

Filing five charges, the prosecution argued Hasina was directly responsible for ordering all state forces, her Awami League party and its associates to carry out actions leading to mass killings, injuries, targeted violence against women and children, the incineration of bodies and denial of medical treatment to the wounded.

The charges describe Hasina as the “mastermind, conductor, and superior commander” of the atrocities.

The interim government has banned the Awami League party and amended relevant laws to allow the trial of the former ruling party for its role during the uprising.