Sunday’s proceedings marked the start of Hasina’s trial in absentia nearly 10 months after the ouster of her government following the protests.
“We do hereby take into cognizance the charges,” the three-judge ICT bench said after a prosecution team formally accused them of attempting to tame the protests using brutal force.
The tribunal simultaneously issued a fresh arrest warrant against Hasina and then home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal.
The third accused, the then inspector general of police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, is in custody to stand trial in person.
The tribunal’s proceedings were broadcast live on television for the first time in Bangladesh’s history. Ousted on August 5 last year after the agitation, Hasina faces multiple cases in Bangladesh. The ICT-BD earlier issued an arrest warrant against Hasina while the interim government sought her repatriation from India in a diplomatic note. New Delhi has only acknowledged receipt with no further comment.
Most senior leaders and officials of Hasina’s party and government were arrested to face charges like mass murder during the July-August protests last year that left hundreds of people, including students and policemen, dead.
According to a UN rights office report, some 1,400 people were killed between July 15 and August 15 last year as violence continued even after the fall of Hasina’s Awami League regime.
