First trial of Sheikh Hasina-era officials begins in Bangladesh court

DHAKA – Bangladesh on May 25 began the first trial of a special court prosecuting former senior figures connected to the ousted government of Ms Sheikh Hasina, the chief prosecutor said.

The court in the capital Dhaka accepted a formal charge against eight police officials in connection to the killing of six protesters on Aug 5, 2024, the day the former prime minister fled the country as protesters stormed her palace.

The eight men are charged with crimes against humanity. Four are in custody and four are being tried in absentia.

“The formal trial has begun,” Mr Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor of Bangladesh’s domestic International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), told reporters.

“The prosecution believes that (it) will be able to prove the crimes done by the accused.”

It is the first formal charge in any case related to the killings during the 2024 student-led uprising, which ended Ms Hasina’s iron-fisted rule of 15 years.

Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August in 2024 when Ms Hasina’s government launched a brutal campaign to silence protesters, according to the United Nations.

The list of those facing trial includes Dhaka’s former police commissioner, Habibur Rahman, who is among those being tried in absentia.

Ms Hasina also fled by helicopter to India, her old ally.

She remains in self-imposed exile, defying Dhaka’s extradition request to face charges of crimes against humanity.

‘Command responsibility’

The launch of the trials of senior figures from Ms Hasina’s government is a key demand of several of the political parties now jostling for power as the South Asian nation awaits elections that the interim government has vowed will take place before June 2026.

Mr Islam said the eight men were accused of “different responsibilities”, including the most senior for “superior command responsibility, some for direct orders... (and) some for participation”.

He said he was confident of a successful prosecution.

“We have submitted as much evidence as required to prove crimes against humanity, both at a national and an international standard,” he said.

Among that evidence, he said, were video footage of the violence, and voice recordings of Ms Hasina in “conversations with different people where she ordered the killing of the protesters using force and lethal weapons”.

The ICT was set up by Ms Hasina in 2009 to investigate crimes committed by the Pakistani army during Bangladesh’s war for independence in 1971.

It sentenced numerous prominent political opponents to death over the following years and became widely seen as a means for her to eliminate her rivals.
AFP