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The International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh (ICT-BD) on Sunday formally indicted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and two of her senior advisors on several charges, including mass murder, starting her trial in absentia for the killing of students in last year's crackdown on protests led by them. “We do hereby take into cognizance the charges,” the three-judge ICT panel announced, as prosecutors formally laid out accusations of planned political violence, command responsibility, and partisan killings. Sunday’s proceedings, which were broadcast live on national television for the first time in Bangladesh’s legal history, began with tension after three crude bombs were hurled at the gates of the tribunal early in the morning. Two bombs exploded while the third was safely defused. Police are already examining CCTV footage to identify the perpetrators and said the motive appeared to be intimidation ahead of the trial.

According to the official reports, the brutal and violent movement, which began in July 2024 and continued for over a month, killed over 1,500 and injured 25,000. “These killings were planned,” said Islam, citing video evidence and encrypted communications recovered from various state agencies. Hasina, ousted from power on August 5, 2024, is now accused of exercising absolute authority to violently suppress the youth-led uprising that swept through Bangladesh last July and August

The tribunal also ordered a new arrest warrant against Hasina and her then Home Minister, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, both of whom are now in hiding. The third accused, erstwhile police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, meanwhile, has been arrested and will go on trial in person. All three have been charged under the ICT Act for offenses including command responsibility, complicity, instigation, and abetment of atrocities carried out during the government crackdown. Chief Prosecutor Tajul Islam also called on the court to declare Hasina's Awami League a criminal entity, claiming the violence was undertaken on partisan lines with the assistance of state machinery and allied organisations. Along with the allegations of state violence, she and her relatives are also under investigation on charges of corruption and misuse of power. The country’s interim government, headed by Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus, disbanded the Awami League after her ouster. All three could face even the death penalty if convicted under the tribunal's laws.

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Last year's protest in Bangladesh | Credit Reuters

Bangladesh Supreme Court Restores Jamaat-e-Islami After Decade

In a separate but equally significant political shift, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court on Sunday reinstated the party registration of the right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami, clearing its path to contest future elections. The Appellate Division, in the chair of Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, ordered the Election Commission to reinstate Jamaat's registration, which had been canceled in 2013 after the party spoke out against the country's 1971 independence from Pakistan. "Today marks the end of the decade-long battle in court," said Mohammad Shishir Manir, a top Jamaat counsel. "We expect voters will now be able to choose the Jamaat candidate of their choice freely. The ruling comes after the top Jamaat leader, ATM Azharul Islam, was recently acquitted on the charges of war crimes committed during the Liberation War. The Supreme Court reversed his death sentence last week, and it evoked divided reactions from across the political spectrum.

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With the Awami League discredited and Hasina in exile, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), headed by ex-PM Khaleda Zia, has again come to the forefront of national politics. Yet BNP has come out publicly in its distance from former ally Jamaat, even though the latter has acquired fresh political legitimacy. The ongoing transition follows one of the deadliest civil uprisings in Bangladesh’s modern history. A UN human rights report released in April stated that 1,400 protest-related deaths occurred between July 15 and August 15, 2024, even after Hasina’s resignation.

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The Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD), once established under Hasina's government to prosecute 1971 war crimes, is now gearing up to prosecute top Awami League officials, such as police officers and bureaucrats, for committing crimes in the 2024 crackdown. The developments mark a dramatic turn in Bangladesh’s political and legal narrative, with long-standing players now facing accountability and once-banned parties returning to the democratic process.

With inputs from the agency.