Hasina accused of 'systematic attack' in protest crackdown

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.

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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 her old ally 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.”