DHAKA: The verdict in the crimes against humanity case against ousted Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina will be delivered on Nov 13, the attorney general said, as the trial ended on Thursday (Oct 23).
Hasina, 78, has defied court orders to return from India to face charges of ordering a deadly crackdown in a failed attempt to crush a student-led uprising.
“If she believed in the justice system, she should have returned,” Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman said in his closing speech of the nearly five-month-long trial in Dhaka.
“She was the prime minister but fled, leaving behind the entire nation – her fleeing corroborates the allegations.”
Her trial in absentia, which opened on Jun 1, heard months of testimony alleging Hasina ordered mass killings.
Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024, according to the United Nations.
Prosecutors have filed five charges, including failure to prevent murder, amounting to crimes against humanity under Bangladeshi law.
They have demanded the death penalty if she is found guilty.
Chief prosecutor Tajul Islam has accused Hasina of being “the nucleus around whom all the crimes were committed” during the uprising.
Her co-accused are former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, also a fugitive, and ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, who is in custody and has pleaded guilty.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/bangladesh-ousted-pm-sheikh-hasina-verdict-protests-5420356
