Complaint filed at International Crimes Tribunal accuses Sheikh Hasina and others of committing genocide, crimes against humanity

Dhaka, August 14

A complaint was filed on Wednesday with the investigation agency of Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal against deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and several others, accusing them of committing genocide and crimes against humanity during the mass movement of the students against her government.

“The complaint was filed by the father of one of the students who died in police gunshots during the massive street protests,” an official of the agency said.

A Supreme Court lawyer filed the case on behalf of Bulbul Kabir, father of slain Arif Ahmed Siyam, a class 9 student who was shot dead by police during the protest on August 5.

“We have registered the complaint and thus the investigation of the case has started,” Ataur Rahman, deputy director of the agency, was quoted as saying by The Daily Star newspaper.

“Upon completion of the probe, we will submit the report to the Chief Prosecutor's Office of the tribunal for the next procedures,” he added.

Hasina and several others were accused of “genocide and crimes against humanity in the complaint,” state-run BSS news agency reported.

The complaint comes on a day when the interim government said that the murders conducted within the period from July 1 to August 5 will be tried by the International Crimes Tribunal.

The complaint accused 76-year-old Hasina and the others of perpetrating the mass killings between July 15 and August 5, the day when Hasina resigned and fled the country, while the students and others who died during the period would come under the purview of the complaint as well, the official said.

Meanwhile, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk made a phone call to Bangladesh's Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus on Wednesday.

“A team of UN experts would soon visit the country to set up an investigation” to probe the killing of the protesters, Yunus said in a post on X.

In line with the procedure, the agency would need to investigate the complaints and then file a case before the ICT-BD, originally constituted to try the Bengali-speaking perpetrators of 1971 Liberation Wartime crimes siding with the Pakistani troops.

Others named in the complaint included the general secretary of Hasina's Awami League and former road transport minister Obaidul Quader, former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, ex-junior minister for information and broadcasting Mohammad Ali Arafat, ex-junior minister for ICT affairs Zunaid Ahmed Palak and several senior police officers including sacked police chief Chowdhury Abdullah al Mamun.

Over 230 people died in Bangladesh in the incidents of violence that erupted across the country following the fall of the Hasina government on August 5, taking the death toll to 560 during the three weeks of violence, which originated from a students' movement against a controversial quota system in jobs.

“The interim government has made preparations to investigate these incidents under the supervision of the United Nations. The murders conducted within the period from July 1 to August 5 will be tried by the International Crimes Tribunal,” Law Adviser Dr Asif Nazrul was quoted as saying by the state-run BSS news agency.

“We looked into the incidents of random firing and killings to find the fact whether there is the scope to prosecute it as a crime against humanity. We are working to try the July-August massacres under the International Criminal Tribunal Act 1973, (amended in 2009, and 2013). Under this Act, all those involved in the killings, those who ordered them and those assisted them in various ways, can be brought to justice,” Nazrul said.

Stating that an investigation team will work under the full supervision of the United Nations to ensure complete transparency and impartiality, he said.

“None of the outgoing government involved in the murder will be exempted,” he said.

“The killings which took place to tame the movement of the student-people movement will be held at the international crimes tribunal,” he told reporters at a press conference here.

He also said that the cases that are false and were filed to harass people during the movement will be withdrawn by Thursday, and other remaining cases will be withdrawn by August 31.