Ousted Bangladesh leader Sheikh Hasina faces crimes against humanity charges
Former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina was formally charged with crimes against humanity on Sunday for her alleged role in the brutal suppression of last year's mass uprising, which ultimately ended her 15-year rule.
A three-member panel of judges at the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka led by Golam Mortuza Mozumder accepted the charges against Hasina and two of her senior aides - former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun. Chief Prosecutor Tajul Islam, while presenting the charges, said Hasina incited crimes against humanity through inflammatory rhetoric and by mobilizing the state's administrative and security apparatus to violently quell the protests.
The prosecution accused the trio of abetment, conspiracy, complicity, facilitation and failing to prevent mass killings during the student-led demonstrations that erupted across Bangladesh in mid-2024.
A United Nations fact-finding mission estimated that approximately 1,400 people were killed in the unrest. (DPA)
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