New Delhi (India), November 17 (ANI): The Ministry of External Affairs on Monday said that India has taken note of the verdict announced by the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh concerning former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and reiterated that India remains committed to the best interests of the people of Bangladesh. The MEA emphasized that India will continue to engage constructively with all stakeholders.
In its statement, the ministry said, “India has noted the verdict announced by the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh concerning former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. As a close neighbour, India remains committed to the best interests of the people of Bangladesh, including in peace, democracy, inclusion and stability in that country. We will always engage constructively with all stakeholders to that end.”
Earlier on Monday, a Bangladesh court found the ousted former prime minister guilty of committing “crimes against humanity” during the July–August uprising in 2024. Local media reported that the International Crimes Tribunal-1 sentenced Hasina to death. According to the Dhaka Tribune, the tribunal found her guilty on all five charges. The ruling also implicated former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, concluding that they orchestrated and enabled atrocities during the movement.
Hasina, who is currently in exile in India, was tried in absentia. The 78-year-old leader fled to New Delhi after the fall of her government in Dhaka. In a statement shared by the Bangladesh Awami League, she denounced the verdict as politically motivated and issued by a “rigged tribunal” presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate.
“The verdicts announced against me have been made by a rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate. They are biased and politically motivated,” she said. She added that the death penalty sought by the tribunal revealed the “brazen and murderous intent” of extremist elements within the interim government to remove Bangladesh’s last elected prime minister and eliminate the Awami League as a political force.
Denying all charges, Hasina said she mourned the deaths that occurred during the 2024 unrest but insisted that neither she nor other political leaders ordered violence against protestors. She also stated she was not given a fair chance to defend herself, nor allowed legal representation of her choosing.
She criticized the tribunal’s impartiality, asserting that senior judges and advocates perceived as sympathetic to her former government had been removed or silenced, while the tribunal exclusively prosecuted Awami League members. According to her statement, it failed to take action against perpetrators from other parties accused of violence against religious minorities, indigenous communities, journalists, and others.
Hasina said the same court had previously tried individuals accused of undermining Bangladesh’s independence during the 1971 war, and she characterized the current proceedings as an act of revenge against a democratically elected government that upheld national sovereignty. She reiterated her call for the interim government to bring the charges before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, adding that the government refused because it feared both her acquittal and scrutiny of its own human rights record.
(ANI)
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