The newly appointed chief prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal of Bangladesh said on Sunday that Bangladesh will take necessary steps to extradite ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from India so that she can be tried on charges of mass killings during the student-led mass movement against her government.
Following unprecedented anti-government protests that peaked on 5 August, Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled to India.
The Daily Star newspaper quoted International Crimes Tribunal’s chief prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam as saying that necessary steps would be taken to bring back former Prime Minister Hasina under an extradition treaty with India so that she could be tried on charges of mass killings during student-led protests in July and August.
“When the International Crimes Tribunal resumes its work, we will file an application before it to issue arrest warrants against all the accused, including Sheikh Hasina, in connection with the cases registered against them for mass murder and crimes against humanity,” he said at a press conference at the ICT campus in Dhaka.
Replying to a question, he said a decision on amending the existing International Crimes Tribunal Act to hear new cases filed in the Income Tax Department would be taken after consultation with the government.
“Information, documents and evidence against the accused persons will be collected from across the country and they have to be compiled, verified and placed before the tribunal in a proper manner, which is a very challenging and huge task,” Islam said.
According to Noor Jahan Begum, health adviser to the interim government, more than 1,000 people have been killed and hundreds injured during the protests against the Hasina-led government.
Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) last month launched an investigation against Hasina and nine others on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity during the student mass movement from July 15 to August 5.
Islam said the International Crimes Tribunal and its investigation team would have to be reconstituted by appointing new judges and investigators as the former judges, prosecution team and investigation agency appointed by the previous government have stepped down following the formation of an interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus in the country after the fall of the Hasina-led government.
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