Ousted Bangladesh leader Hasina faces crimes against humanity charges

Former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina was formally charged with crimes against humanity on Sunday for her alleged role in the brutal suppression of last year's mass uprising, which ultimately ended her 15-year rule.

A three-member panel of judges at the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka led by Golam Mortuza Mozumder accepted the charges against Hasina and two of her senior aides — former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun.

Chief Prosecutor Tajul Islam, while presenting the charges, said Hasina incited crimes against humanity through inflammatory rhetoric and by mobilizing the state's administrative and security apparatus to violently quell the protests.

The prosecution accused the trio of abetment, conspiracy, complicity, facilitation and failing to prevent mass killings during the student-led demonstrations that erupted across Bangladesh in mid-2024.

According to Chief Prosecutor Islam, Hasina and her aides "unleashed all state law enforcement agencies and armed members of the then ruling party to crush the uprising."

He described the crackdown as a "systematic attack aimed at silencing dissent."

The court proceedings were broadcast live on state-run Bangladesh Television, marking an unprecedented moment in the history of Bangladesh's judiciary.

A United Nations fact-finding mission estimated that approximately 1,400 people were killed in the unrest, which initially began in July 2024 as a protest against the controversial quota system in public sector recruitment.

The protest soon spread nationwide and culminated into mass uprising, leading to Hasina's ouster in early August.

Hasina, 77, fled the country by military helicopter on August 5, 2024 and has since remained in exile in India.