Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal Investigates Former PM Sheikh Hasina and 9 Others for Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity

Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal has started investigating former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and 9 others on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Hasina is accused of incidents that took place during a massive student movement against her government between July 15 and August 5. A complaint was filed against Hasina, Awami League General Secretary and former Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, former Home Minister Asad-uz-Zaman Khan Kamal and several other prominent people of the party.

According to the 'Dhaka Tribune’ newspaper, the complainant's lawyer Gazi MH Tamim confirmed on Thursday that the tribunal had started the investigation. He said the agency started investigating the case on Wednesday night. The petition also names the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League and its allied organizations. The petition has been filed by Bulbul Kabir, father of ninth-grade student Arif Ahmed Siam. Arif died during the anti-reservation student movement.

In his petition, Kabir has accused Hasina and others of taking violent action against student protesters. Bangladesh's interim government had announced that the cases related to the killings during the period between July 1 and August 5 would be heard by the International Crimes Tribunal.

It is also worth mentioning that a United Nations team will soon visit Bangladesh to investigate the killing of protesters before and after Sheikh Hasina's resignation last week. Muhammad Yunus, chief adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh, wrote on 'X', "UN human rights chief Volker Turk spoke to Bangladesh's chief adviser on the phone on Wednesday." Volker told Yunus over the phone, "A UN team will visit the country to investigate."