Bangladeshi tribunal bans dissemination of deposed prime minister Hasina’s ‘hate speeches’

Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) on Thursday ordered a ban on disseminating deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s “hate speeches” in the mainstream media and social media networks as the tribunal is set to try her on numerous charges of crimes against humanity.

The order follows Hasina’s recent speech, her first public address after fleeing to India on August 5, in which she mounted a stinging attack on the country’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus, accusing him of perpetrating “genocide” and failing to protect minorities including Hindus.

“The tribunal has banned broadcasting, publishing, and spreading any hate speech by ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina in all types of mass and social media,” ICT prosecutor Gazi MH Tamim told reporters.

He added that the tribunal, formed in 2009 to investigate and prosecute those suspected of genocide and the local collaborators of Pakistani troops during the 1971 Liberation War, simultaneously ordered the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to remove all posts regarding her “inflammatory remarks” from all social media platforms and mass media.

Hasina, 77, is set to face trial in the ICT in at least 60 cases filed over the charges of genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the protests and subsequent uprising in July and August this year.

The three-member tribunal led by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mazumdar issued the order after the prosecution team earlier in the morning sought the ban in light of recent circumstances.

Hasina’s Awami League regime was ousted in an uprising led by Anti-Discrimination Students Movement on August 5 when she secretly left Bangladesh for India and three days later an interim government was installed with Muhammad Yunus as its head or Chief Adviser.

Yunus, in a media interview two months ago, said Hasina must stop talking to evoke further public outrage in Bangladesh.

The ICT last month gave the tribunal’s investigation team a month to complete probing the genocide charges against her and others over the crimes and submit the findings by December 17.

In remarks delivered virtually to her supporters at an event in New York, Hasina claimed that there were plans to kill her and her sister Sheikh Rehana just like their father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated in 1975.

Describing Yunus as “power-hungry”, Hasina alleged that the places of worship in Bangladesh are under attack and the current dispensation has totally failed to deal with the situation.

Hasina was speaking to supporters of her Awami League party at the event organised on Sunday to mark “Bijoy Dibos” or Victory Day that falls on December 16.

In a recent interview with a Japanese newspaper, Yunus reiterated that India should extradite Hasina once her trial in the ICT concludes.

“Once the trial concludes and a verdict is reached, we will formally request India to hand her over,” Yunus said, adding that under an international law signed by both countries, “India would be obligated to comply.”