Bangladesh: Charges filed against Hasina, 40 others in crimes against humanity case

Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) prosecution on Monday filed formal charges against deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and 40 others in a crimes against humanity case related to a police crackdown on a rally in Dhaka in 2013.

Several people were killed allegedly during police action on Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam’s protest rally in May 2013, when Hasina’s Awami League was in power.

The charges were submitted to the registrar of the ICT on Monday.

The tribunal “has taken into contingence charges against her (Hasina) and 40 others over the killings at (capital’s) Shapla Chattar during the Hefazat-e-Islam protest rally,” chief prosecutor Aminul Islam told reporters. The tribunal also issued arrest warrants for the fugitives, including the then army chief, other politicians and security officials.

Nine of the high-profile accused, including former ministers, senior police officers and journalists, are in jail to face the trial, according to the prosecution.

Hasina, 78, was sentenced to death by the same tribunal in November last year after a trial in absentia for a superior role in taming a student-led protest which toppled her Awami League Government in 2024.

She fled to India and has been living there since August 5, 2024. On May 5, 2013, Hefazat-e-Islam staged a grand rally at the heart of the city with police permission over their 13-point demand, mainly calling for enactment of a blasphemy law for tougher punishment for humiliating Islam and revered figures.

But the radical group later escalated it into an indefinite sit-in protest, defying a Government order asking them to leave the capital after their scheduled rally. During their grand rally at the Motijheel Shapla Chattar, the Islamists burnt down stalls of religious books at the nearby Baitul Mokarram National Mosque complex. They also set ablaze 30 buses and 100 shops and chopped down scores of trees to create barricades on the road.

Buildings of several Government installations, banks and the Communist Party office in the Purana Paltan area of the city were also set ablaze and damaged.

The then main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party extended support to the Islamist group, asking the party members to stand by the protesting group with food and water. Eventually, law enforcement agencies cleared the protesters out of the city overnight.

According to the chief prosecutor, tribunal investigators found 58 people were killed in the police crackdown in Dhaka and four other districts on the night of May 5. A rights group called Odhikar described it as a massacre.

International watchdogs like Human Rights Watch had rejected the claim of large-scale killings, but said security actions caused loss of life. Amnesty International called for the establishment of an independent and impartial investigation committee.

At that time, Hasina’s Awami League Government acknowledged deaths of as many as 11 people, including five security personnel, as a direct result of clashes initiated by what it called violent protesters, stampedes, or attacks by demonstrators against public property and law enforcement.

It claimed several of the victims named by Odhikar were still alive, while many others were imaginary figures who never existed.