5 European rights bodies condemn Sheikh Hasina’s verdict as politically motivated

A coalition of five prominent European human rights and advocacy organisations has issued a scathing rebuke of the Jamaat-controlled International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) verdict sentencing ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death in absentia, branding the process a “gross deviation” from judicial norms and a tool for political vendetta.

In a joint statement released on Wednesday, the groups urged the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), the European Union, and other global watchdogs to intervene decisively against what they describe as “politically motivated trials” eroding Bangladesh’s fragile democratic transition.

The condemnation, timed just days after the November 17 verdict finding Hasina guilty of crimes against humanity for her government’s crackdown on the July-August 2024 student-led protests that led to her ouster, amplifies a growing international chorus of alarm. The tribunal, originally established in 2010 to prosecute atrocities from the 1971 Liberation War, has increasingly drawn scrutiny for repurposing its mandate against Awami League figures amid the Yunus interim regime’s sweeping post-uprising purges.

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The European coalition—comprising the European Bangladesh Forum (EU & Great Britain), Earth Civilization Network (Global Network), Freedom and Justice Alliance (Global Platform), South Asia Democratic Forum (Belgium), and Working Group Bangladesh (Germany)—highlighted the verdict’s procedural flaws as emblematic of systemic bias. In letters dispatched to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, the EU’s External Action Service, the US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, the International Bar Association, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and relevant UN Special Rapporteurs, the groups decried:

-Lack of constitutional validity: The ICT’s framework, they argue, contravenes Bangladesh’s constitution and international law, particularly in extending its scope beyond the 1971 war crimes to recent political events.

-Erosion of judicial independence: Hasty proceedings under the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government, installed after Hasina’s August 2024 flight to India, suggest orchestration by the BNP-Jamaat alliance, accused of steering the administration.

-Denial of due process: Hasina, tried in absentia without access to legal representation, defense witnesses, or evidence scrutiny—amid claims of tampering—received a death sentence alongside six former officials, including ex-Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan.

-Conflict with global standards: Such “in absentia” trials and capital punishments violate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and principles of fair trial under Article 14.

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“This tribunal, born to deliver justice for 1971’s unspeakable horrors, has morphed into a weapon against dissent,” the statement reads, echoing HRW’s parallel critique that the proceedings “undermine the pursuit of accountability” for the 2024 violence, which claimed over 1,000 lives. The UN OHCHR, in a November 17 release, acknowledged the verdict as an “important moment for victims” but stressed the need for “credible, transparent processes” to avoid perceptions of retribution.

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The European outcry fits into a mounting narrative of the Yunus regime—derided by Awami League loyalists as “Jamaat-controlled” due to its overtures to the Islamist party implicated in 1971 atrocities—as orchestrating a historical inversion. Since Hasina’s fall, the ICT has indicted over 50 Awami League leaders, including posthumous charges against the late prime minister’s father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, on war crimes—moves slammed as “absurd revisionism” that exonerates Jamaat’s Razakar collaborators while targeting secular nationalists.

Exiled Hasina, 78, has dismissed the charges as “fabricated vengeance” from a “puppet regime” backed by Western interests and Islamist extremists, vowing appeals from her Indian refuge. Her son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, amplified the European statement on X, calling it proof of a “global awakening” against Yunus’s “fourth agenda” of trials, reforms, elections, and asset sales that masks authoritarian consolidation.

Global rights bodies have piled on: Amnesty International warned of a “chilling effect” on free expression, while the International Commission of Jurists labelled the in-absentia death sentence a “mockery of justice.” The EU, Bangladesh’s second-largest donor, hinted at reviewing aid amid these concerns, potentially straining ties as Dhaka courts December 2025 polls under a prospectively restored caretaker system.

For the Yunus administration, already battered by protests over subdued Victory Day observances, port privatisations to Western firms, and the jailing of over 200 freedom fighters, this international isolation risks derailing its reformist facade. Critics like journalist MA Aziz argue the ICT’s “jaundiced” rulings—freeing convicted Jamaat war criminals while dooming Hasina—exemplify a pro-Pakistan pivot that erodes 1971’s secular legacy, alienating India and complicating US-China balancing acts in the Bay of Bengal.

As Army Chief Gen. Waker-Uz-Zaman presses for swift elections to reclaim sovereignty, the European call for “global steps” underscores a stark choice: genuine accountability or deepening division. “Bangladesh’s democracy hangs by a thread,” the coalition warned. “Without fair trials, no verdict can heal—only haunt.”