Sheikh Hasina formally indicted in crimes against humanity cases in Bangladesh: Reports
The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) indicted Sheikh Hasina by accepting charges of crimes against humanity filed against her in connection with a mass uprising in which hundreds of students were killed last year.
A three-member panel, headed by Justice Golam Mortuza Mozumder, indicted Sheikh Hasina, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun on five charges, the report said.
Former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun has reportedly pleaded guilty and petitioned to turn state's witness in the case, as per bdnews24 news portal.
Mamun is the only one of the three to be detained in jail as Sheikh Hasina and Asaduzzaman Khan are being tried in absentia.
Sheikh Hasina fled to India on August 5 after her Awami League government was toppled last year.
Bangladeshi prosecutors at the International Crimes Tribunal formally charged Sheikh Hasina of crimes against humanity in June this year during the mass uprising in the country last year.
Mohammad Tajul Islam, the chief prosecutor at Bangladesh's domestic International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), had alleged that Hasina orchestrated a "systemic attack" on protests against her government as the trial against her opened on Sunday.
"Upon scrutinising the evidence, we reached the conclusion that it was a coordinated, widespread and systematic attack," Islam had told the court in his opening speech, according to AFP news agency.
"The accused unleashed all law enforcement agencies and her armed party members to crush the uprising".
On August 5 last year, Sheikh Hasina's 16-year rule with the Awami League was overthrown in a violent mass uprising. A fact-finding committee of the United Nations Human Rights High Commission estimates that around 1,400 people were killed in the protests. Since then, the 77-year-old Hasina has been residing in India.
She faces multiple cases in Bangladeshi courts, where she is accused of numerous charges like mass murders and crimes against humanity, and enforced disappearances.
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