Dhaka [Bangladesh], November 17 (ANI): Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has denounced the verdict issued against her, calling the decision the product of a “rigged tribunal” established and led by an unelected government with no democratic mandate.
In a statement shared by the Bangladesh Awami League, Hasina said, “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. In their distasteful call for the death penalty, they reveal the brazen and murderous intent of extremist figures within the interim government to remove Bangladesh’s last elected prime minister and to nullify the Awami League as a political force.”
She sharply criticized the administration of Dr. Mohammad Yunus, stating, “Millions of Bangladeshis toiling under the chaotic, violent, and socially regressive administration of Dr. Mohammad Yunus will not be fooled by this attempt to short-change them of their democratic rights. They can see that the trials conducted by the so-called International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) were never intended to achieve justice or provide any genuine insight into the events of July and August 2025. Rather, their purpose was to scapegoat the Awami League and to distract the world’s attention from the failings of Dr. Yunus and his ministers.”
Hasina added, “Under his aegis, public services have fallen apart. Police have retreated from the country’s crime-ridden streets and judicial fairness has been subverted, with attacks on Awami League adherents going unpunished. Hindus and other religious minorities are assaulted, and women’s rights suppressed. Islamic extremists inside the administration, including figures from Hizb-ut-Tahrir, seek to undermine Bangladesh’s long tradition of secular government. Journalists are locked up and menaced, economic growth has stalled, and Yunus has delayed elections and then banned the country’s most longstanding party (the Awami League) from participating in those elections.”
Regarding the ICT, she said, “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.” She added that she was not given a fair chance to defend herself in court nor allowed to have lawyers of her choice represent her in absentia.
“Despite its name, there is nothing international about the ICT; nor is it in any way impartial,” Hasina said. “Any senior judges or even senior advocates who have previously expressed any sympathy for the previous government have been removed or intimidated into silence. The ICT has exclusively prosecuted members of the Awami League. It has done precisely nothing to prosecute or even investigate perpetrators from the other parties of documented violence against religious minorities, indigenous people, journalists and others.”
Hasina said the court has been used before to try war criminals from 1971, alleging that the current proceedings are motivated by “the personal pursuit of revenge against a democratically elected government that upheld the nation’s independence and sovereignty.”
She highlighted that she has repeatedly challenged the interim government to bring the charges before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. “The interim government will not accept this challenge, because it knows that the ICC would acquit me,” she said. “The interim government also fears that the ICC would scrutinize its own record of human rights breaches in office.”
Criticizing Yunus, she stated, “Our government was democratically elected by the people, and we were accountable to them. We sought their votes during elections and took pains to avoid any action that could harm ordinary citizens. Dr. Yunus, on the other hand, came to power unconstitutionally, and with the support of extremist elements.”
She alleged that protests by students, garment workers, doctors, nurses, teachers and other professionals have been met with suppression, sometimes brutal. “Peaceful demonstrators have been shot and killed. Journalists who attempt to report these incidents face harassment and torture,” she said. Hasina accused Yunus’s forces of carrying out killings and attacks in Gopalganj and filing criminal cases against injured victims, turning “the persecuted into the accused.”
She further alleged that properties belonging to “hundreds of thousands” of Awami League leaders and activists have been burned and destroyed. “Since July 15, 2024, those responsible for these retaliatory attacks, burnings and lynchings, which were carried out on Yunus’ orders as part of his meticulous plan to seize power, have been granted indemnity,” she said. “Instead, every criminal charge has been redirected against Awami League members through the presentation of false information by the ICT’s compromised Chief Prosecutor to this bogus court. Terrorists, extremists and convicted killers have been released from prison, while the jails have been filled with Awami League leaders and activists.”
Hasina also rejected ICT allegations of human rights abuses as “unevidenced,” adding, “I am very proud of my government’s record on human rights and development. We led Bangladesh to join the International Criminal Court in 2010, gave refuge to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing persecution in Myanmar, expanded access to electricity and education, and presided over 450 percent GDP growth over 15 years, lifting millions out of poverty. These achievements are a matter of historical record.”
A Bangladesh court on Monday afternoon found ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina guilty of committing “crimes against humanity” during the July–August uprising in 2024. Local media reported that the International Crimes Tribunal-1 has sentenced Hasina to death. According to the Dhaka Tribune, the tribunal found her guilty on all five charges of crimes against humanity.
The verdict concludes that Hasina and two others—former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal—had orchestrated and enabled atrocities during the July–August movement. The Awami League leader, currently in exile in India, was tried in absentia. The 78-year-old fled to New Delhi after the fall of her government in Dhaka. (ANI)
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