An inevitable verdict
The International Crimes Tribunal-1 has sentenced deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal to death for crimes against humanity committed during the mass uprising last year. The tribunal has also sentenced former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who is a state witness and has pleaded guilty, to five years' imprisonment. The case concerns the brutal killing of what the UN estimates to be around 1,400 protesters during the July-August uprising.
Sheikh Hasina was sentenced to death on two charges. She received the death penalty for Charge 4, concerning the shooting and killing of six unarmed protesters in Dhaka's Chankharpul on August 5 last year. Charge 5 relates to the shooting of six student protesters in Ashulia on the same day—five of whom were later burned after death, while the sixth was allegedly set on fire while still alive.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. 
Hasina was also sentenced to imprisonment until natural death for making inflammatory remarks and ordering the use of deadly weapons against protesting students. Under Charge 2, she was found guilty of ordering the killing of student protesters through the use of helicopters, drones, and lethal weapons. According to the tribunal, Asaduzzaman was sentenced to death on two charges. Prosecutors filed five charges against the accused, including failure to prevent murder, amounting to crimes against humanity under Bangladeshi law. They also asked the tribunal to confiscate the assets of all three defendants, if convicted, and distribute them among the victims' families.
The court's conclusion regarding Sheikh Hasina's superior command responsibility in the execution of the atrocities by subordinates, including the police forces, has been well established. The UN Human Rights Commission's report also corroborates this. Videos, verified by international organisations and media, of law enforcers and security forces shooting down unarmed protesters have evidenced the brutal and deliberate use of excessive force. The deaths of small children who happened to be in the line of fire when security forces shot from helicopters have been widely reported by the media, including our own paper. Audios of telephone conversations provide further reinforcement of the allegation that the former PM, along with her aides, was complicit in planning the crackdown and instructing subordinates to carry it out in the cruellest way. As the tribunal has found, none of the accused took any steps to prevent the atrocities committed by law enforcers, nor did they take any measures against them after the fact. Given such compelling facts, the verdict was inevitable.
For the families of the martyrs, as well as the thousands of protesters who have been permanently disabled by the horrific shootings during the uprising, the verdict against the former prime minister and former home minister may provide some measure of closure. We hope that, as the cases under the ICT continue, all legal steps are taken for the sake of transparency and fairness.
Comments