Bangladesh Trial: Hasina Accused of 'Systematic Attack' to Crush Dissent

Fugitive former Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina orchestrated a "systematic attack" that amounted to crimes against humanity in her attempt to crush the uprising that toppled her government, Bangladeshi prosecutors said at the opening of her trial on Sunday.

- Agence France-Presse

DHAKA:

Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 after Hasina's government launched its crackdown, according to the United Nations.

Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to India as the student-led uprising ended her 15-year rule and she has defied an extradition order to return to Dhaka.

Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) is prosecuting former senior figures connected to Hasina's ousted government and her now-banned party, the Awami League.

"Upon scrutinising the evidence, we reached the conclusion that it was a coordinated, widespread and systematic attack," ICT chief prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam told the court in his opening speech.

"The accused unleashed all law enforcement agencies and her armed party members to crush the uprising."

Islam lodged five charges each against Hasina and two other officials that included "abetment, incitement, complicity, facilitation, conspiracy, and failure to prevent mass murder during the July uprising".

Prosecutors say such acts are tantamount to "crimes against humanity".

'Not an act of vendetta'

Hasina, who remains in self-imposed exile in India, has rejected the charges as politically motivated.

As well as Hasina, the case includes ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun—who is in custody but did not appear in court on Sunday—and former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who is also on the run.

The prosecution of senior figures from Hasina's government is a key demand of several of the political parties now jostling for power. The interim government has vowed to hold elections before June 2026.

The hearing is being broadcast live on state-owned Bangladesh Television.