{"id":4743,"date":"2025-11-17T17:38:44","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T11:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyrepublicbd.com\/?p=4743"},"modified":"2025-11-18T04:03:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T22:03:05","slug":"sheikh-hasina-slams-ict-bd-verdict-as-biased-politically-motivated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyrepublicbd.com\/?p=4743","title":{"rendered":"Sheikh Hasina slams ICT-BD verdict as biased, politically motivated"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Bangladesh\u2019s exiled Prime Minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina on Monday <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/albd1971\/status\/1990381811546177873\">denounced <\/a>the court verdict convicting her of \u201ccrimes against humanity\u201d as a \u201cbiased and politically motivated sham\u201d delivered by an \u201cillegal tribunal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The International Crimes Tribunal-1 (ICT-BD), a domestic war crimes court, announced a death sentence for Hasina, capping a contentious months-long trial that has drawn widespread international scrutiny. The tribunal delivered the verdict as crowds watched the hearing on big screens set up by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs across Dhaka, with supporters of the interim government celebrating amid a nationwide shutdown called by Hasina\u2019s Awami League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/chrome-extension:\/\/efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj\/https:\/\/files.albd.org\/Crisis-in-Bangladesh\/ICT-Verdict-statement-death-penalty.pdf\">FULL STATEMENT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe verdicts announced against me have been made by a rigged tribunal established and presided over by an unelected government with no democratic mandate,\u201d Hasina said in a statement from India. \u201cThey 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\u2019s laws and international standards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u09b6\u09c7\u0996 \u09b9\u09be\u09b8\u09bf\u09a8\u09be\u09b0 \u09b2\u099c\u09cd\u099c\u09be\u099c\u09a8\u0995 \u09ac\u09bf\u099a\u09be\u09b0: \u09a8\u09cd\u09af\u09be\u09af\u09bc\u09ac\u09bf\u099a\u09be\u09b0\u09c7\u09b0 \u099b\u09b2\u09c7 \u09b0\u09be\u099c\u09a8\u09c8\u09a4\u09bf\u0995 \u09aa\u09cd\u09b0\u09a4\u09bf\u09b6\u09cb\u09a7 | \u09b6\u09c7\u0996 \u09b9\u09be\u09b8\u09bf\u09a8\u09be\" width=\"1110\" height=\"833\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zX0_EfeUKiI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Critics of the ICT-BD, including human rights organisations and legal experts, have long lambasted the tribunal for its structural flaws and political weaponisation. Established under the controversial 1973 International Crimes (Tribunals) Act (ICTA), the court has been decried as a \u201cblack law\u201d that brazenly violates fundamental rights, including fair trial guarantees under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dailyrepublicbd.com\/?p=4739\">ICT-BD: Sheikh Hasina snubs false charges in illegal court<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dailyrepublicbd.com\/?p=4731\">Complete Shutdown: Sheikh Hasina urges all to make it successful<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dailyrepublicbd.com\/?p=4694\">ICT-BD: Yunus gang wants death verdict against Sheikh Hasina in sham trial<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under the current interim administration led by Muhammad Yunus\u2014seen by detractors as propped up by an unholy alliance of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami, a party previously banned in 1972 and 2024\u2014the tribunal has been reconstituted in ways that amplify these concerns. Jamaat, accused of war crimes during the 1971 Liberation War and whose leaders were previously tried by the ICT-BD itself, is alleged to wield undue influence in the Yunus regime, turning the court into a tool for settling old scores while flouting due process and international norms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly highlighted the tribunal\u2019s failure to meet global fair trial standards, warning that its rushed procedures and lack of independence undermine justice rather than deliver it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Bangladesh grapples with this polarising verdict, calls for ICC intervention grow louder among Hasina\u2019s supporters, who view the ICT-BD not as a bastion of accountability but as a politicised relic, hijacked by vengeful forces to erase the legacy of a leader they credit with transforming the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following the judgment, Bangladesh\u2019s Foreign Ministry formally requested India to extradite Sheikh Hasina and former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, as Yunus, BNP-Jamaat allies, and their supporters took to the streets in jubilation amid the Awami League\u2019s shutdown protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hasina, who was taken to India on August 5, 2024, defied repeated court orders to return to Dhaka for her trial. During her 15-year rule, she faced accusations from opponents of jailing political rivals, imposing draconian media curbs, and presiding over systemic human rights violations\u2014a record her defenders counter with claims of stabilising a volatile nation and fostering economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hasina categorically rejected the tribunal\u2019s authority, dismissing all charges as fabricated. \u201cIt&#8217;s a guilty verdict against me that was a foregone conclusion from an apparatus designed to convict, not to seek truth,\u201d she added in her detailed five-page statement. She expressed willingness to face a fair trial remotely from abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI am not afraid to face my accusers in a proper tribunal where the evidence can be weighed and tested fairly,\u201d she declared. \u201cThat is why I have repeatedly challenged the interim government to bring these charges before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague\u2014a venue they dread, knowing the ICT-BD\u2019s own record of illegality and bias would collapse under scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She further accused the Yunus-led setup of fearing ICC examination of its human rights record, including alleged extrajudicial killings and suppression of dissent. Hasina lambasted Yunus for seizing power \u201cunconstitutionally\u201d with backing from \u201cextremist elements,\u201d including Jamaat, whose history of violence and opposition to Bangladesh\u2019s secular ethos casts a dark shadow over the tribunal\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUnder his rule, every protest\u2014from students and garment workers to doctors, nurses, teachers, and professionals\u2014has been crushed with brutal force,\u201d Hasina charged. \u201cPeaceful 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\u2014Bangladesh\u2019s oldest party\u2014has been unlawfully banned. Properties of my party\u2019s leaders have been torched and looted nationwide, a pogrom unchecked by this so-called government of \u2018justice.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reflecting on the July-August 2024 violence that precipitated her ouster, Hasina defended her administration\u2019s response as a good-faith effort to restore order and avert greater bloodshed. \u201cWe lost control amid the chaos, but to paint it as a premeditated massacre is a gross distortion,\u201d she said. Prosecutors, she claimed, failed to adduce credible evidence of her directing \u201clethal force,\u201d relying instead on decontextualised audio clips and incomplete transcripts. \u201cOperational decisions lie with on-ground security forces following legal protocols\u2014not my personal fiat,\u201d she insisted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bangladesh\u2019s exiled Prime Minister and Awami League President Sheikh Hasina on Monday denounced the court verdict convicting her of \u201ccrimes against humanity\u201d as a \u201cbiased and politically motivated sham\u201d delivered&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,123,101,42],"tags":[77,50,71,54,65,56,64],"class_list":["post-4743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-ict-bd","category-interview","category-politics","tag-awami-league","tag-interim-government","tag-islami-chhatra-shibir","tag-jamaat-e-islami","tag-mobocracy","tag-muhammad-yunus","tag-yunus-gang"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyrepublicbd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyrepublicbd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyrepublicbd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyrepublicbd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyrepublicbd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4743"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dailyrepublicbd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4751,"href":"https:\/\/dailyrepublicbd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4743\/revisions\/4751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyrepublicbd.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyrepublicbd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyrepublicbd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyrepublicbd.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}