‘Sheikh Hasina, family, aides will be tried for crime against humanity’: Bangladesh CA Yunus

Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus has said that former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, her family and aides will stand on trial for ‘crimes against humanity’.

In an interview with Sky News, Chief Advisor Yunus said, “A trial will be taking place. Not only her, but also all the people who are associated with her - her family members, her clients or associates.”

Hasina, who fled the country last year in August after widespread student apprising, is accused of running a government system that witnessed several enforced disappearances and the mass killing of protestors.

Yunus said that two arrest warrants have been issued to Hasina while the interim government has sent “formal letters” to India for her repatriation but received “no official response” from New Delhi.

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He, however, said that the Awami League leader has to face the court whether physically present in Bangladesh or absentia.

‘Everyone was involved’

Since her ouster last year, Hasina’s aides and those accused of overseeing secret jails across the country have fled Bangladesh.

Yunus recently toured one such notorious secret detention facilities known as the ‘House of Mirrors.’ Expressing his disbelief, he stated that the experience left him utterly stunned.

“This is just the ugliest thing that you can see, you can feel, or you can observe,” he said.

The CA said that the identification of the range of people accused of alleged crimes is “taking time”.

“Everybody was involved in it all. The whole government was involved in it. So you cannot distinguish who was really and enthusiastically doing it, who was doing it under orders and who was not quite supportive but carrying out those kinds of things,” he said.

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Yunus, on Tuesday, said that the country would hold elections in December, 16 months after the Sheikh Hasina-led government was overthrown from power.

Last month, Khaleda Zia’s  Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) confirmed that Yunus plans to hold the next general elections in December 2025.

In his address, delivered on the 53rd anniversary of Bangladesh winning independence from Pakistan following a nine-month war, Yunus said elections would only be possible after electoral reforms.

“If additional reforms are needed, and taking into account national consensus, it may take at least another six months,” the 84-year-old added.