Bangladeshi justice is seeking the extradition of Sheikh Hassina, who has been a refugee in India since August 5. The 76-year-old former prime minister had to flee Dhaka in a hurry by helicopter, pursued through the streets and freed by the army. He settled in the suburbs of Delhi and has since remained in India, in a secret and protected location.
The chief prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal, Mohammad Tajul Islam, who was recently appointed to head this jurisdiction, created in 2010 to investigate the atrocities committed during the 1971 war of independence with Pakistan, announced to the press on Sunday, September 8, his decision to launch the extradition procedure. He accuses the fugitive of having committed “massacres” during the last fifteen years at the head of this country of 170 million inhabitants. This same court has already received twelve complaints against Hasina and another eight from her office or officials for “murder”, “genocide” AND “crimes against humanity”. Other actions, for various reasons, were brought before other courts in the country against the former Prime Minister.
The extradition process is expected to be facilitated by a treaty signed between India and Bangladesh in 2013 and amended in 2016 to control insurgency and terrorism along their shared 4,000-kilometre border. Both countries have pledged to hand over those accused or convicted of offences carrying a minimum sentence of one year in prison, provided the offence is recognised as a punishable offence by both sides. According to legal experts, Hasina’s case falls within the scope of this treaty. She risks very harsh sentences in this country which still applies the death penalty.
Her opponents and the students who led the revolt are loudly demanding that the Iron Lady be brought to justice and tried for ordering the shooting of protesters, killing more than 600 people according to the UN. but mme Hassina will also have to answer for kidnappings and extrajudicial executions. She is suspected of having locked up hundreds of people in secret prisons, many of whom never returned. Bangladeshi justice opened an investigation into the enforced disappearances in August.
The warning of Muhammad Yunus
The new chief prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal is well aware of Hasina’s past. The lawyer has distinguished himself in defending her opponents, particularly Jamaat-e-Islami leaders in war crimes cases.
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