Bangladesh interim govt asks India to hand over Sheikh Hasina after tribunal awards death sentence

Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry has issued a statement calling on India to “immediately hand over” Sheikh Hasina and ex-Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan following their guilty verdicts.

Hours after Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) awarded death sentence to country’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and ex-interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, the country’s interim government, led by Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus, asked the Indian Government to hand over the ousted leaders as part of extradition treaty between New Delhi and Dhaka, news agency Reuters reported.

The ICT-1 of Bangladesh on Monday ordered the execution by hanging of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal after finding them guilty of genocide committed during the July–August 2024 violence in a case involving crimes against humanity.

Hasina was tried in absentia by a special tribunal. Her state-appointed lawyer Mohammad Amir Hossain cannot even appeal because his clients are absent.

Additionally, former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who turned state witness and testified before the Tribunal against the former Prime Minister and Home Minister, has been sentenced to five years in prison after admitting his involvement. Earlier, Prosecutor Tajul Islam had appealed for the highest punishment for Sheikh Hasina in this case.

Reacting to the court order, Hasina said: “Verdicts announced against me were made by a rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate…I was given no fair chance to defend myself in court,” news agency Reuters reported her as saying. “I am not afraid to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where evidence can be weighed, tested fairly."

The verdict by the International Crimes Tribunal - a court Hasina set up to try war crimes from Bangladesh's 1971 war for independence from Pakistan - marks a dramatic turn for a political career that began when she avoided death during the 1975 coup because she happened to be in Europe.