Former Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to death over the charges of crimes against humanity related to the demonstrations in July last year.
NEW DELHI — The Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG), a New Delhi-based human rights body, on Monday, termed the conviction of former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her two top aides as a “farce” and a “miscarriage of justice”, alleging that the real perpetrators have not been punished.
The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) convicted Hasina and her two top aides, former Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and former Inspector General of Police, Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun after it found them guilty on the charges of crimes against humanity related to the demonstrations in July last year.
Ousted Prime Minister Hasina has been sentenced to death over “two charges committed during the July agitation”.
The RRAG Director Suhas Chakma said that the conviction of former Prime Minister Hasina and former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal with death and former Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun with five years imprisonment by Bangladesh’s ICT is a political farce, does not meet basic international standards for fair trial, and is a miscarriage of justice for the victims.
The RRAG Director in a statement said that the trial of Hasina in absentia violates the basic international human rights standards on fair trial.
The interim Bangladesh government did not follow up extradition of Hasina with India, Chakma said, adding that if Bangladesh had any evidence, it could have filed a petition before India’s Supreme Court seeking the former Bangladesh Prime Minister’s extradition.
He said that any country that follows the rule of law has to seek extradition of the accused to meet fair trial standards, just the way India fought for extradition of Abu Salem before the Supreme Court of Portugal and is currently fighting for extradition of Mehul Choksi in the courts in Belgium.
“Because Bangladesh does not have any evidence and therefore, it decided to sentence Prime Minister Hasina and her colleagues in a Kangaroo Court trial,” Chakma added.
“Among others, former PM Hasina was accused of the murder of Abu Sayed near Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur, murder of six unarmed protesters in Dhaka’s Chankharpul and six students at Ashulia last year. How could Prime Minister Hasina be charged without the actual perpetrators of these crimes being even named in the chargesheet?” the RRAG Director asked.
He added that former Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun cannot be the approver for these crimes as he was not present in the crime scenes.
According to Chakma, during the description of the evidence on Monday while delivering the court judgment, Bangladesh’s ICT referred to the reports of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Human Rights Watch (HRW), BBC, etc as evidence.
“The reports of the OHCHR, HRW or BBC per se cannot be evidence unless testified by their representatives with corroborative evidence to substantiate the contention in the reports, more so while awarding death sentence. The testimonies of these witnesses or cross examination of these witnesses have not taken place during the trial. The trial is also miscarriage of justice for the victims because the real perpetrators are not being punished,” the RRAG Director said.
Sheikh Hasina denies all accusations
Meanwhile, Sheikh Hasina issued a statement, after the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) sentenced her to death on Monday, calling the ruling “biased” and “politically motivated.”
“The verdicts announced against me have been made by a rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate,” her statement read.
Hasina denied all charges against her claiming that they are a ploy by the ruling government.
“For the record, I wholly deny the accusations that have been made against me in the ICT. I mourn all of the deaths that occurred in July and August of last year, on both sides of the political divide. But neither I nor other political leaders ordered the killing of protestors,” Hasina said. — With inputs from IANS
