Former PM Sheikh Hasina addressing the media during the student-led uprising in the country last year.
Dhaka, Bangladesh: Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to six months in jail by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in a contempt of court case, according to local media reports. The verdict was delivered on Wednesday by a three-member bench of the ICT-1, led by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder.
This marks the first conviction against the ousted Awami League leader since she fled Bangladesh nearly 11 months ago after being removed from office.
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The tribunal also handed a two-month prison sentence to Shakil Akand Bulbul of Gobindaganj in Gaibandha in connection with the same case.
In June this year, the prosecutors at the ICT formally charged Hasina with crimes against humanity during the mass protest that shook the nation last year. Chief Prosecutor of ICT alleged that Hasina orchestrated a “systemic attack” on protests against her government.
Sheikh Hasina’s 16-year Awami League regime was dismantled following a student-led uprising on August 5 last year. The former Bangladesh prime minister was forced to flee the country and seek refuge in a safe house in New Delhi, India. She was accused of mass killings during the protests and reportedly enforced disappearances earlier in the tribunal.
The report found there were nearly 3,500 cases of forced disappearances during the Hasina era.
The commission had earlier found eight secret detention centres in Dhaka and nearby areas. Many of the victims include former military officers and activists opposing former Prime Minister Hasina’s government.
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The ICT was established by Hasina in 2009 to investigate and prosecute crimes committed by the Pakistani army during the Bangladesh’s 1971 war for independence.
Six senior leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and one leader from former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party were executed following their convictions.
