Amnesty condemns revenge trial death sentence for Sheikh Hasina as unfair

In a scathing rebuke of Bangladesh’s deepening political crisis, Amnesty International on Tuesday denounced the death sentence against exiled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and ex-Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal as a “neither fair nor just” farce, orchestrated by an unelected interim regime under Muhammad Yunus that prioritises vengeance over accountability.

The human rights watchdog’s statement lays bare the long-standing flaws of the International Crimes Tribunal’s (ICT-BD), warning that the rushed, in-absentia conviction—marred by procedural lapses and bias—only perpetuates a cycle of injustice, while the death penalty stands as the “ultimate cruel, degrading and inhuman punishment.”

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Amnesty Secretary General Agnès Callamard pulled no punches in her response to Monday’s verdict, which capped a lightning-fast trial amid global outcry.

“Those individually responsible for the egregious violations and allegations of crimes against humanity that took place during the student-led protests in July and August 2024 must be investigated and prosecuted in fair trials,” Callamard stated.

“However, this trial and sentence are neither fair nor just. Victims need justice and accountability, yet the death penalty simply compounds human rights violations.”

The condemnation strikes at the heart of the Yunus administration’s legitimacy, which seized power in the chaotic aftermath of Hasina’s August 2024 ouster but lacks a democratic mandate to wield such sweeping judicial power. Critics, including Hasina’s Awami League and international observers, have branded the proceedings a “revenge trial” engineered by Yunus’s coalition of BNP hardliners and Jamaat-e-Islami Islamists—parties with their own bloody histories—to settle scores against Hasina’s 15-year rule.

Callamard echoed these concerns, spotlighting the ICT’s “lack of independence and history of unfair proceedings”—a body Amnesty has pilloried since its inception for politically influenced verdicts, coerced confessions, and contempt charges against dissenters (as detailed in 2013 and 2014 statements).

The trial’s “unprecedented speed,” conducted without Hasina’s presence despite court summonses she defied from her Indian exile, left her court-appointed lawyer with “manifestly inadequate” preparation time. Reports of barred cross-examinations on contradictory evidence only amplified fair trial red flags, violating international standards under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

“Justice for survivors and victims demands that fiercely independent and impartial proceedings, which meet international human rights standards, are conducted,” Callamard emphasised.

“This was not a fair trial. The victims of July 2024 deserve far better. Bangladesh needs a justice process that is scrupulously fair and fully impartial beyond all suspicion of bias and does not resort to order further human rights violations through the death penalty. Only then can genuine and meaningful truth, justice and reparations be delivered.”

In a stark contrast, former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun—now a state witness who pleaded guilty—drew just five years in an in-person trial, underscoring the tribunal’s uneven hand. Amnesty’s video verification series from last year exposed the “unlawful use of both lethal and less-lethal force” against protesters, including rubber bullets and live rounds fired into crowds. Yet, under Yunus’ watch, the ICT has been reconstituted with figures tied to opposition factions, fueling claims of a vendetta.

Awami League leaders are condemning the verdict and observing a shutdown across the country. They say that the Yunus regime, born of street chaos, not elections, has no moral or legal authority to impose death on political foes while shielding its own radicals. This is revenge, not reckoning—a death knell for Bangladesh’s fragile democracy.

Amnesty’s outright opposition to capital punishment “in all cases without exception” underscores the verdict’s moral bankruptcy, regardless of guilt. As Bangladesh hurtles toward uncertain elections—delayed indefinitely by Yunus’s “reform” facade—the statement amplifies calls for International Criminal Court scrutiny, where Hasina has dared prosecutors to bring charges.

Bangabandhu’s daughter, Sheikh Hasina, denounced the court verdict convicting her of “crimes against humanity” as a “biased and politically motivated sham” delivered by an “illegal tribunal.”

“The verdicts announced against me have been made by a rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate,” Hasina said in a statement.

“They are biased and politically motivated, orchestrated by a court widely criticised as illegitimate and run under the influence of the war criminal Jamaat-e-Islami party, which has long disregarded Bangladesh’s laws and international standards.”

Hasina categorically rejected the tribunal’s authority, dismissing all charges as fabricated. “It’s a guilty verdict against me that was a foregone conclusion from an apparatus designed to convict, not to seek truth,” she added in her detailed five-page statement. She expressed willingness to face a fair trial remotely from abroad.

“I am not afraid to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where the evidence can be weighed and tested fairly,” she declared. “That is why I have repeatedly challenged the interim government to bring these charges before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague—a venue they dread, knowing the ICT-BD’s own record of illegality and bias would collapse under scrutiny.”

She further accused the Yunus-led setup of fearing ICC examination of its human rights record, including extrajudicial killings and suppression of dissent. Hasina lambasted Yunus for seizing power “unconstitutionally” with backing from “extremist elements,” including Jamaat, whose history of violence and opposition to Bangladesh’s secular ethos casts a dark shadow over the tribunal’s operations.

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“Under his rule, every protest—from students and garment workers to doctors, nurses, teachers, and professionals—has been crushed with brutal force,” Hasina charged. “Peaceful demonstrators have been shot dead, while journalists exposing these atrocities endure harassment, torture, and imprisonment. Economic stagnation has set in, elections are endlessly delayed, and the Awami League—Bangladesh’s oldest party—has been unlawfully banned. Properties of my party’s leaders have been torched and looted nationwide, a pogrom unchecked by this so-called government of ‘justice.’”

Reflecting on the July-August 2024 violence that precipitated her ouster, Hasina defended her administration’s response as a good-faith effort to restore order and avert greater bloodshed. “We lost control amid the chaos, but to paint it as a premeditated massacre is a gross distortion,” she said.

Prosecutors, she claimed, failed to adduce credible evidence of her directing “lethal force,” relying instead on decontextualised audio clips and incomplete transcripts. “Operational decisions lie with on-ground security forces following legal protocols—not my personal fiat,” she insisted.