Bangladesh: ICT sentences former PM Sheikh Hasina to six months jail

Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to six months in prison for contempt of court, triggering outrage from the Awami League. The ruling, based on a leaked audio clip, is widely seen as politically motivated

Dhaka: The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) of Bangladesh on Wednesday sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to a six-month prison sentence on charges of contempt of court.

Additionally, Shakil Akanda Bulbul, a leader of the Awami League’s student wing Chhatra League, was sentenced to two months in jail in connection with the same case.

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The three-member tribunal, headed by ICT Chairman Justice Golam Mortuza Majumdar, passed the judgment, local media reported. The prosecutor filed contempt of court charges against Hasina and the Chhatra League leader based on a viral audio clip leaked on social media that featured the former Prime Minister and allegedly showed her interfering in the judicial process and issuing threats to the tribunal.

Last month, the ICT issued a show-cause notice to Hasina, who left the country in August 2024, and Bulbul in the alleged contempt of court case.

The Awami League has, meanwhile, strongly condemned the commencement of trial proceedings against its party leader and former Prime Minister Hasina by the ICT, calling it a “show trial” orchestrated under the unelected and undemocratic regime of Muhammad Yunus.

The party pointed to previous concerns expressed by the United Nations regarding the lack of due process and fair trial guarantees within the ICT system.

According to the Awami League, since Yunus assumed power, the tribunal has prosecuted only Awami League leaders while ignoring crimes against civilians, journalists, religious minorities, and women. The party also questioned the impartiality of the ongoing trial, noting that several officials of the current administration have already declared Sheikh Hasina guilty in public compromising the possibility of a fair judicial process.

“This cannot and would not be a fair trial in any jurisdiction,” the party said.

Ironically, the tribunal was established by the government led by Sheikh Hasina under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act to provide for the detection, prosecution and punishment of persons responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other crimes under International Law committed by the Pakistani Army, with the help of their local collaborators, in the territory of Bangladesh during the 1971 Liberation War.

Analysts reckon the developments as a major political vendetta being pursued by the interim government led by Yunus, as several cases were filed against the former PM and her supporters on frivolous grounds immediately after her ouster in August 2024.

A leading voice in the struggle to restore democracy in the country, Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had to flee the country in an ignominious manner and seek refuge in India on August 5.