Bangladesh tribunal indicts former Prime Minister Hasina for mass murder
Iran Press TV
Sunday, 01 June 2025 5:02 PM
Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal has indicted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina on several charges.
The court on Sunday indicted the 77-year-old former leader and two other officials for their alleged role in ordering the police and supporters to carry out a deadly crackdown on student-led protests in 2024.
Hasina and her government have been accused of crimes against humanity over the mass killing of the students.
Prosecutors say that during her reign, Hasina ruled the nation with an iron fist.
"The accused unleashed all law enforcement agencies and her armed party members to crush the uprising," Mohammad Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor at Bangladesh's domestic International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), told the court in his opening speech on Sunday.
Islam has accused the former leader of ordering the "massacres" of defenseless people, mostly youths, in the brutal crackdown by police.
He said Hasina and the two other officials are accused of "abetment, incitement, complicity, facilitation, conspiracy, and failure to prevent mass murder" during the student-led mass uprising.
Nearly 1,400 Bangladeshis were killed between July and August 2024, according to UN estimates.
In mid-October, ICT issued an arrest warrant for Hasina, who has been living in self-imposed exile in India since her ousting during the student-led uprising.
Since fleeing to neighboring India, Hasina has not been seen in public.
The new government is making efforts to bring Hasina back to the country to face the charges.
"Bangladesh has a criminal extradition treaty with India, which was signed in 2013," Islam said. "As she has been made the main accused of the massacres in Bangladesh, we will try to legally bring her back to Bangladesh to face trial."
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