A Bangladesh court will begin extradition proceedings against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India after her ouster on August 5, prosecutors said. “Since the main person responsible has fled the country, we will begin legal proceedings to bring her back”Mohammad Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), told reporters on Sunday, accusing Ms Hasina of committing «massacres» during his fifteen years at the head of the country.
The ICT was set up by Ms Hasina in 2010 to initially investigate atrocities committed during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan. Sheikh Hasina, 76, and her government have been accused of massive human rights violations, including arbitrary detentions and extrajudicial killings of political opponents.
Sheikh Hasina fled the country in August after weeks of student protests turned into a widespread popular uprising. “Bangladesh signed a criminal extradition treaty with India in 2013, when Sheikh Hasina’s government was in power”Mr. Islam said. “As she is the main accused of the massacres in Bangladesh, we will try to bring her back there legally to face trial.”he added.
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The transitional government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, is facing intense public pressure to obtain India’s extradition of the former prime minister and for her to face trial for the hundreds of protesters killed during the summer’s protests.
According to a preliminary report by the United Nations, at least 600 people died during the repression of the anti-Hasina protests, a toll that the UN itself judges “probably underestimated”In addition, Bangladesh’s justice system opened an investigation in August into hundreds of enforced disappearances suspected of being committed by security forces when Ms Hasina was in power.
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