Bangladesh's war crimes court orders fugitive former PM Hasina to return to face trial
Prosecutors have filed five charges against Hasina, including abetment, incitement, complicity, facilitation, conspiracy and failure to prevent mass murder -- charges that amount to crimes against humanity under Bangladeshi law.
"The court directed the prosecution team to issue a notice as soon as possible, summoning them to appear before the court," chief prosecutor Muhammad Tajul Islam said on Monday.
The trial will resume on June 24 without her if she fails to return.
The prosecution argues that Hasina ordered security forces, through directives from the interior ministry and police, to crush the protests.
Hasina is on trial with two other officials.
One of them, former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who faces similar charges, is also a fugitive.
The second, ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, is in custody and was in court on Monday.
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 said it will hold elections in April 2026, although some parties are pushing for an earlier vote.
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The Hindu
26 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Bangladesh orders fugitive ex-leader Hasina to return to face trial
Bangladesh's war crimes court ordered fugitive ex-leader Sheikh Hasina on Monday (June 16, 2025) to return to face trial on charges amounting to crimes against humanity. Ms. Hasina (77) fled Dhaka by helicopter to India in August 2024 at the culmination of a student-led mass uprising. She has defied an extradition order to return to Bangladesh. Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 when Hasina's government launched a crackdown in a failed bid to cling to power, according to the United Nations. Ms. Hasina and former senior figures connected to her ousted government and her now-banned party, the Awami League, are being prosecuted in Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT). Prosecutors have filed five charges against Hasina, including abetment, incitement, complicity, facilitation, conspiracy and failure to prevent mass murder — charges that amount to crimes against humanity under Bangladeshi law. Also read: The Sheikh Hasina extradition demand, India's options 'The court directed the prosecution team to issue a notice as soon as possible, summoning them to appear before the court,' chief prosecutor Muhammad Tajul Islam said on Monday (June 16, 2025). The trial will resume on June 24 without her if she fails to return. The prosecution argues that Hasina ordered security forces, through directives from the interior ministry and police, to crush the protests. Ms. Hasina is on trial with two other officials. One of them, former Interior Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who faces similar charges, is also a fugitive. The second, ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, is in custody and was in court on Monday (June 16, 2025). 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 said it will hold elections in April 2026, although some parties are pushing for an earlier vote.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Awami League critiques Muhammad Yunus' disastrous UK trip
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Bangladesh's oldest political party the Awami League (AL) has condemned Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Adviser of the interim regime of Bangladesh, for his disastrous UK trip which according to AL achieved nothing for the Bangladeshi the five-day visit, thousands of Bangladeshis – including many Awami League supporters - peacefully protested on the streets of London. These were ordinary citizens demanding free and fair elections and accountability from announcing a meeting with UK PM Keir Starmer ahead of his trip, it was later revealed that no such meeting was ever scheduled. Yunus failed to secure an audience with the Prime Minister – a double humiliation, since it followed an earlier failure ahead of the trip to secure a meeting with France's president, Emmanuel stayed in the luxurious Dorchester Hotel, in the heart of London's shopping district, and was one of numerous recipients of awards handed out by King Charles III, although he received notably less coverage than another award recipient, the footballer David Beckham. Yunus also undertook a series of meetings that did not yield anything tangible for the people of obvious contrast is with Sheikh Hasina, who as the PM, met with British Prime Ministers routinely on visits, the last time being a bilateral meeting with Rishi Sunak in London in 2023, discussing serious matters of shared strategic and economic importance to the two were held outside the Dorchester Hotel upon Yunus's arrival, at Chatham House where Yunus gave a speech, and in Parliament Square where several hundred British Bangladeshis banded together to demand a better future for their Arafat, AL spokesperson, said, 'I'm sure Yunus enjoyed rubbing shoulders with David Beckham, but he has achieved nothing for our country. His shopping trip to London would be laughable were a tragedy not unfolding for the people of Bangladesh, who live in an environment of fear and social trip represents a humiliation for Bangladesh on the global stage. Yunus's visit painfully illustrates Bangladesh's diminished importance on the world stage. His refusal to allow free and fair elections, his unreliability as an economic partner and his questionable commitment to Bangladesh's traditional strategic alliances have worsened our isolation. Yunus must explain what he has achieved for Bangladesh, apologise for insulting his own people, and commit to real democratic consultation on the country's future.'
India Today
2 hours ago
- India Today
ED chargesheets Pakistani man for creating fake IDs for Bangladeshis in India
The Enforcement Directorate has filed a chargesheet under the anti-money laundering law against a Pakistani man, living as an Indian in Kolkata, after illegally procuring as many as five vital government IDs, including Aadhaar, voter card and was laundering funds by making "fake" Indian IDs for Bangladeshis who came to India and through other illegal activities like hawala, the federal probe agency said in a statement on ED said it submitted the prosecution complaint against the man named Ajad Mallik alias Ahammed Hossain Azad and Azad Hossain before a special Prevention of Money Laundering (PMLA) court in Kolkata on June 13. The court has taken note against the "Pakistani national" and fixed a date for hearing, it ED, which carried out raids in this case in April, had then said in a press statement that Mallik was a Bangladeshi national. It arrested Mallik under the anti-money laundering law and the probe brought to light that he was indeed a Pakistani ED case stems from a West Bengal Police FIR against Mallik and unidentified others for violation of the Foreigners Act of 1946."Probe found that the man was a Pakistani national illegally living in India," the ED statement Pakistani driving licence dating back to 1994 was recovered from his mobile phone bearing the name Azad Hossain and featuring the photograph of Ajad Mallik alias Ahammed Hossain Azad. It listed his father's name as Mumtaz-Ul-Haque and a permanent address in Pakistan," the ED said the driving licence recorded his date of birth as August 14, 1971, and it was issued by the licencing authority in Hyderabad, order to "conceal" his true identity, the ED said, the man adopted the alias "Ajad Mallik" and procured multiple Indian identity documents like Aadhaar, PAN (permanent account number issued by the income-tax department) card, driving licence, voter ID and passport by submitting "forged" and "fabricated" documents, as per the agency found that the man operated a hawala network to facilitate illegal cross-border remittances between India and Bangladesh, collecting payments in cash and UPI, before transferring equivalent amounts to Bangladesh using platforms like 'Bkash', an online financial transaction platform in Bangladesh."He was also involved in illegal money transfers and document forgery and was actively involved in facilitating the preparation of visas and passports for Bangladeshi nationals seeking to travel to countries like Dubai, Cambodia and Malaysia," the ED Pakistani man collected payments in Bangladeshi Taka, US Dollars, and Indian Rupees and deposited these amounts into his own bank account or transferred them to the accounts of associates engaged in fraudulent visa or passport processing, the ED played a "significant" role in "fraudulent" activities carried out at certain forex changers (full-fledged money changers) based in Kolkata, in which "huge" cash deposits were declared as proceeds from legitimate foreign currency sales to customers, but were actually "proceeds of crime" linked to "unlawful" activities including the creation of "fake" Indian identities for Bangladeshis to obtain passports, the ED ED had said in April that the man has two sons - Osama Bin Azad and Omar Faruk - and his wife Maymuna Akhter, residing in Bangladesh and are citizens of that country. It said the man "frequently" visited Bangladesh to meet his Watch
