A special tribunal in Bangladesh has formally indicted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on five counts of crimes against humanity linked to a deadly mass uprising in 2024 that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of students.
The charges were accepted by a three-member judicial panel led by Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder.
Also indicted were former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun. Hasina and Khan are being tried in absentia.
Hasina’s party, the Awami League, swiftly rejected the tribunal’s decision, denouncing the court as a “kangaroo” tribunal.
Proceedings began on June 5, when the tribunal issued public notices in newspapers for Hasina and Khan to appear in court. Both are believed to be in India, with Hasina remaining in exile since August 5. The interim government, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, has formally requested their extradition from India, though New Delhi has not responded.
Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun appeared in court and pleaded guilty. He expressed his intention to assist the prosecution.
Chief Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam told reporters that Al-Mamun had applied to become an “approver,” a legal status granted to a defendant who agrees to testify against co-accused individuals in exchange for possible leniency.
“The tribunal accepted his plea to be an approver,” Islam stated.
Meanwhile, protests have continued in the capital, where demonstrators recently gathered near a vandalized mural of Hasina, calling for justice for the students killed in the 2024 crackdown.
The prosecution submitted evidence to the tribunal, including a leaked audio recording purportedly featuring Hasina, as well as related documents.
Amir Hossain, a state-appointed lawyer for Hasina and Khan, filed a motion to have their names removed from the case. The court dismissed the application.
The tribunal has set August 3 for the prosecution’s opening statements and August 4 for the start of witness testimony.
The Awami League, in a statement posted on X, accused the interim government of politicizing the judiciary.
“People have lost their faith over the judicial system as Yunus regime has reduced this key state organ into a means to prosecute dissenters,” the party posted. “We condemn in strongest term the indictment against our party president and other leaders as we assert that this step marks another testament to the ongoing witch hunt against our party and weaponization of judiciary by Yunus regime.”
Prosecutors described Hasina as the “mastermind, conductor, and superior commander” of the government-led crackdown. They alleged she directed a coordinated campaign that included mass killings, sexual violence, the burning of bodies, and denial of medical care to the injured.
The interim administration has outlawed the Awami League and amended legal frameworks to facilitate prosecutions tied to the 2024 uprising.
According to the United Nations human rights office, as many as 1,400 people may have died during the three-week student protests and the two weeks following Hasina’s ouster.
Earlier this month, the same tribunal sentenced Hasina to six months in jail for contempt of court. The ruling cited a leaked phone call in which Hasina allegedly said, “There are 227 cases against me, so I now have a license to kill 227 people,” referring to the number of cases she faces.
The tribunal currently trying Hasina was originally established by her own administration in 2009 to investigate and prosecute war crimes committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 independence war from Pakistan.
Bangladesh gained independence that year with military and political support from India. Hasina’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, led the country’s liberation and became its founding leader.
