Arrest warrants issued against ousted Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina in enforced disappearance cases

The cases accuse Hasina and 29 others of overseeing the detention, torture and disappearance of political opponents at secret facilities operated by elite security agencies, a news portal reported.

Dhaka: Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal on Wednesday issued arrest warrants against deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and several others on charges of crimes against humanity in alleged cases of enforced disappearances during her Awami League regime.

A three-member International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) bench, led by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder, took cognisance of the charges filed in two separate cases, according to media reports.

The cases accuse Hasina and 29 others of overseeing the detention, torture and disappearance of political opponents at secret facilities operated by elite security agencies, the bdnews24 news portal reported.

The ICT issued arrest warrants against Hasina and others implicated in the cases and set October 22 as the date to produce the accused before the court, state-run BSS news agency reported.

Hasina fled to India on August 5 last year after resigning from her post amidst unprecedented anti-government student-led protests, which toppled her Awami League regime.

In the first case, the prosecution brought five charges in the case against 13 people, including Hasina and her former security and defence adviser Tarique Ahmed Siddique, over alleged crimes committed at the Joint Interrogation Cell of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence.

Prosecutors said five charges of crimes against humanity were filed in the case, the news portal reported.

The second case implicates Hasina, Siddique, and 15 others over the disappearance and torture of detainees in a secret cell operated by the Rapid Action Battalion’s Task Force Interrogation unit.

Five charges of crimes against humanity were filed there as well, the report quoted prosecutors as saying.

Hasina, 78, faces multiple cases in Bangladesh after being ousted last year following the mass student-led agitation in the country.