INTERNATIONAL Crimes Tribunal 1 has ordered the publication of notices in two national newspapers asking the deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina and former home affairs minister Asaduzzaman Khan to appear in the tribunal in seven days. The three-member tribunal has passed the order in a case filed against Hasina and Asaduzzman, who the prosecutor said could not be located in raids on their houses multiple times, and former inspector general of police Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, who is now in jail, and posted for June 24 the next hearing in the case filed for the crimes against humanity committed in the 2024 mass uprising. The prosecution has cited newspaper reports to note that both Hasina and Asaduzzaman are in hiding in India and they could be produced in the tribunal on their arrest later. The deposed prime minister, the former home affairs minister and the former inspector general of police face charges on five counts in the case that the tribunal accepted. They are abetment, instigation, facilitation, conspiracy and command responsibility for crackdown on the student protesters, who were later joined in by ordinary people, finally, toppling the Awami League government on August 5, 2024.
The publication of the notices in newspapers for Hasina and Asaduzzaman suggests, as is the norm, that their trial would begin in their absence, or in absentia in legal parlance. But what makes the issue worrying is that hours before the hearing began on June 16, the Awami League and its associate organisations that have their activities suspended since May 12 pending the completion of the trial of the July 2024 atrocities during the uprising, had briefly brought processions at Shahbagh and College Gate in Dhaka, demanding the cancellation of Hasina鈥檚 trial in the international crimes tribunal. In addition, a crude bomb was exploded the tribunal gate, which the Shahbagh police said had happened 5:25am although they failed to immediately establish the perpetrators. The police also found a crude bomb unexploded at the place. The police also found seven crude bombs left abandoned near the medical centre of the University of Dhaka. Two crude bombs were also exploded near the tribunal gate on June 1 when the tribunal heard the formal charges against Hasina, Asaduzzaman and Mamun. All this suggests that the trial proceedings are highly unlikely to be smooth. And, such a situation warrants that the executive and the judiciary should step up security in and around the tribunal and mind other issues of security centring on the trial.
Both the executive and the judiciary should, therefore, mind the issues and step up security in and around the tribunal to head off any propositions that might trouble the trial.
