Worldwide Crimes Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Lawyer Tajul Islam addresses the media in Dhaka on October 17, 2024. | Picture credit score: AFP
The Worldwide Crimes Tribunal (ICT), arrange by the federal government of ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in 2010, has issued arrest warrants in opposition to Sheikh Hasina, Awami League basic secretary Obaidul Quader and 44 others. These orders are associated to alleged crimes in opposition to humanity dedicated throughout the July-August 2024 rebellion, which led to the autumn of Hasina’s authorities after 16 years in energy.
The court docket, headed by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Majumdar, issued the orders following two petitions filed by the prosecution searching for the arrest of Ms Hasina and different key political figures. The court docket additionally ordered authorities to arrest the 46 individuals, together with ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and produce them earlier than the court docket by November 18. Chief Prosecutor Muhammad Tajul Islam confirmed this.
“We appealed to the court docket as a result of the defendants in these circumstances are extraordinarily influential,” mentioned chief prosecutor Tajul Islam. “With out his arrest, conducting a good investigation could be extremely tough. Peculiar residents and even the households of the martyrs are too afraid to talk out in opposition to these highly effective figures. To make sure an intensive investigation, we request the issuance of arrest warrants.”
The prosecutor additionally reported that lots of the defendants proceed to carry necessary positions inside the state, so the court docket has not totally revealed their identities. Nonetheless, sources point out that former ministers Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, Hasan Mahmud and Anisul Huq are among the many 46 individuals.
The ICT was reconstituted on October 14, 2024 with Justice Mortuza appointed as President and Justice Shafiul and former Justice Mohitul as members. The restructuring is geared toward rushing up trials associated to crimes in opposition to humanity and genocide dedicated throughout the July-August rebellion within the nation. The rebellion led to the deaths of not less than 753 individuals and hundreds of accidents.
Greater than 60 complaints of crimes in opposition to humanity and genocide have been lodged in opposition to Ms Hasina and different senior leaders of the Awami League with the ICT investigation company. Investigations into these allegations are already underway.
Hasina’s authorities initially established the Worldwide Crimes Tribunal in 2010 to strive critical crimes dedicated throughout the battle of independence that led to the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. Since then, the court docket has convicted and sentenced quite a few individuals for crimes in opposition to humanity. humanity. Nonetheless, following huge scholar and public protests in July and August, Ms. Hasina resigned on August 5 and left the nation. The interim authorities, headed by Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, introduced that crimes dedicated throughout the July and August protests would even be prosecuted below ICT.
In the meantime, arrests of leaders affiliated with the Awami League proceed each day in Bangladesh. On Thursday (October 17, 2024), former Meals Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder, former Residence Minister Jahangir Alam and former Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque have been discovered arrested in two circumstances. On the identical day, former Dhaka North Metropolis Company mayor Atiqul Islam was jailed in reference to the loss of life of a grade 7 scholar Rakib Hasan, killed throughout the July 19 protests in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur space.
Printed – October 17, 2024 03:34 pm IST
