Tulip Siddiq's aunt charged with crimes against humanity in Bangladesh
Sheikh Hasina, the ousted Bangladesh prime minister and the aunt of Labour MP Tulip Siddiq, has been charged with crimes against humanity for her alleged involvement in mass killings during anti-government protests.
Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal has issued arrest warrants for Ms Hasina and Asaduzzaman Khan, the former interior minister, who are both believed to be in India. Former police chief, Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, has been arrested.
According to the charges, the autocratic former leader was directly responsible for ordering all state forces, her Awami League party and its associates to carry out actions that led to mass killings, injuries, targeted violence against women and children, the incineration of bodies and denial of medical treatment to the wounded.
The charges describe 77-year-old Ms Hasina as the 'mastermind, conductor, and superior commander' of the atrocities.
She has not yet responded to the charges. If proven guilty, she could face capital punishment.
Ms Hasina fled to India in August last year as student-led protesters brought down her 15-year rule. Her premiership was marked by widespread accusations of election-rigging to maintain her hold on power and human rights violations such as extrajudicial killing, extensive arbitrary arrests, torture and enforced disappearances, including of children.
The UN human rights office has estimated that up to 1,400 protesters may have been killed in Hasina's crackdown to crush the uprising.
Bangladesh has demanded that India hands her over. Last year, India confirmed receiving a diplomatic communication for her extradition from Dhaka, but it has refused to comment further, triggering a diplomatic row between the two countries.
The three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Mohammad Golam Mortuza Mozumder in a live trial proceedings, a first in Bangladesh, has ordered the prosecution to file a progress report on efforts to arrest Hasina and Asaduzzaman on June 16.
According to the charges, Hasina incited violence during a press conference at Ganabhaban on July 14.
Under her direction, law enforcement agencies carried out systematic and widespread attacks on protesters, Maynul Karim, the International Crimes Tribunal prosecutor, told The Telegraph. 'The attacks involved murder, attempted murder, torture, and other inhumane acts,' Mr Karim said.
In one charge, Mr Karim said Hasina ordered the extermination of protesters using helicopters, drones, and lethal weapons, orders that Khan and Mamun allegedly executed by commanding security forces.
Another charge states that, on Aug 5 last year, under similar orders, law enforcement officers shot six unarmed protesters and subsequently burned them in Dhaka's Ashulia area.
Police poured petrol over the bodies and set them ablaze. 'Eyewitness testified that a young protester among them was burned alive after being shot and left wounded. He was still alive as the bodies burned,' Mr Karim claimed.
The incident forms part of wider charges filed against Hasina. The charges stem from a May 12 investigative report that named her as the 'mastermind, conductor, and superior commander' behind the deadly attacks on protesters.
'We have strong evidence, including telephonic conversations, that Hasina, under her superior command responsibility, ordered crimes against humanity, including murder of students,' Mr Karim said. 'If proven guilty, she will face capital punishment.
'If she doesn't join the trial, it will be presumed that she is involved in the crimes against humanity, and the court might start a trial in absentia.'
Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission is holding a wider investigation into the alleged unlawful allocation of state-owned land and apartments to Ms Hasina, her children, and close relatives, including Ms Siddiq.
The case also involves a $4 billion (£2.9 billion) embezzlement investigation by the commission into a nuclear deal struck by Ms Hasina, in which Ms Siddiq had also been named, with Russia.
Ms Siddiq, who resigned from the UK Government in January amid scrutiny of her links to Ms Hasina, has been named in multiple Bangladeshi inquiries for illegally acquiring plots and apartments.
She has denied the charges and accused the Bangladeshi government of a 'targeted and baseless' campaign against her and asked why it had briefed the media but not put its allegations to her directly. The UK's National Crime Authority has frozen £90 million worth properties linked to the former Bangladesh regime.
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