The Bangladesh War Crimes Court ordered the former fugitive leader Sheikh Hasina on Monday to return to a trial for charges equivalent to crimes against humanity.
Hasina, 77, fled Dhaka by helicopter to India in August 2024 for the culmination of a massive uprising led by students. She has challenged an extradition order to return to Bangladesh.
Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 when the Hasina government launched a repression in a failed attempt to hold on to power, according to the United Nations.
Hasina and former senior figures connected to his ejected government and his party now forbidden, the Awami League, are being prosecuted in the International Crime Court (ICT) of Bangladesh.
Prosecutors have submitted five charges against Hasina, including incitement, incitement, complicity, facilitation, conspiracy and failure to prevent mass murder, charges equivalent to crimes against humanity under Bangladesh’s law.
“The Court ordered the Prosecutor’s Office to issue a notice as soon as possible to convene them to appear before the Court,” said Chief Prosecutor Muhammad Tajul Islam on Monday.
The trial will resume on June 24 without it if it does not return.
The Prosecutor’s Office argues that Hasina ordered the security forces, through directives of the Ministry of Interior and the Police, to crush the protests. Hasina is in trial with two other officials.
One of them, former Interior Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who faces similar positions, is also a fugitive.
The second, former police chief, Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, is in custody and was in court on Monday.
The prosecution of the high -level figures of the Hasina government is a key demand of several of the political parties that are now push for power.
The interim government has said that it will hold elections in April 2026, although some matches are pressing for an earlier vote.
