Bangladesh Crisis: Court Issues Arrest Warrant Against Sheikh Hasina, 45 Others for ‘Crimes Against Humanity’

Bangladesh Crisis: The International Crimes Tribunal has reportedly issued arrest warrants against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who was removed from office following a student-led protest in August.

According to a PTI report, the arrest warrants have also been issued for several top-level leaders from her party, the Awami League. The Tribunal, headed by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Majumdar, passed the directives after the prosecution submitted two petitions seeking arrest warrants for them, according to Chief Prosecutor Muhammad Tajul Islam, as reported by the Daily Star. The Tribunal also ordered that Hasina and 45 others be brought before it by November 18.

So far, over 60 complaints have been filed at the Tribunal against Hasina and other leaders from her Awami League party. These complaints involve serious allegations like enforced disappearances, murder and mass killings.

As of now, nearly 200 cases have been filed against the former Prime Minister. It is worth pointing out that the judges, prosecution team and investigation agency of the ICT, which were appointed by the previous administration, resigned following the establishment of the interim government.

The Current Situation

After massive anti-government protests over the controversial job quota system, Hasina stepped down from her ministerial position and fled the country. Following her resignation, Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning economist, was sworn in as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government.

Hundreds of people were killed in Bangladesh in the incidents of violence that erupted across the country following the fall of the Hasina government, taking the death toll to more than 1,000 since the massive protest by students against a controversial quota system in government jobs first started in mid-July.

After taking over on August 8, Bangladesh’s interim government had said it would try in the International Crimes Tribunal those involved in the killings during the mass movement of the students against the Hasina-led government.

(With inputs from PTI)