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Dhaka: Former Dhaka police commissioner and two other police officers were on Monday sentenced to death by a special Bangladesh tribunal for their alleged role during the 2024 violent street protests that led to then prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster.
A three-judge panel of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD), led by Justice Mohammad Golam Mortuza Mozumder, handed down the sentence to former Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) commissioner Habibur Rahman, former DMP joint commissioner Sudip Kumar Chakraborty and additional deputy commissioner Mohammad Akhtarul Islam after their trial in absentia.
This is the second verdict delivered by the restructured ICT-BD which earlier handed down the death penalty to deposed premier Hasina and then home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal.
"These three (convicts) had superior status over their subordinates and are liable for superior command responsibility. They are found guilty and hereby awarded a single sentence of death," the judgment said.
The tribunal also sentenced Dhaka’s assistant police commissioner Mohammad Imrul to six years, inspector Arshad Hossain to four years and three constables Sujon Hossain, Imaj Hossain and Nasirul Islam to three-year prison terms.
The three former police officers who received the capital punishment and assistant commissioner Imrul were tried in absentia as the tribunal earlier declared them as fugitives while the others faced the trial in person.
The ICT-BD, which tries crimes against humanity, found the accused guilty of an incident in which six people were killed by police gunshots in Dhaka’s Chankharpul area on August 5, 2024, the day the then government was toppled.
ICT-BD chief prosecutor Muhammad Tajul Islam expressed dissatisfaction over the “relatively lenient punishments” for those awarded jail terms.
“Though it is customary to say 'much obliged' after any judgment of the court, we intend to file an appeal," he said.
In November, Hasina was sentenced to death in absentia by the ICT-BD for "crimes against humanity" over her government's brutal crackdown on student-led protests.
In its verdict that followed a months-long trial, the tribunal described the 78-year-old Awami League leader as the "mastermind and principal architect" of the violent repression that killed hundreds of protesters.
Hasina has been living in India since she fled Bangladesh on August 5, 2024, in the face of the massive protests.