Dhaka:

A fresh complaint was filed on Tuesday with Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal accusing deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and 23 others of committing crimes against humanity and genocide during a rally by an Islamist group in May 2013.

Supreme Court lawyer Gazi MH Tamim filed the complaint on behalf of Mufti Harun Ijahar Chowdhury, joint secretary general (education and law) of Hefajat-e-Islam, The Daily Star newspaper reported.

“We registered the complaint, and thus the investigation has started from today,” Ataur Rahman, deputy director (admin) of the investigation agency, was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

“Once we complete the preliminary investigation and visit the place of occurrence and the tribunal is reconstituted, we, through the prosecution, will seek arrest warrants against the accused,” he said.

The complaint accused Hasina and 23 others of committing crimes against humanity and genocide during a Hefajat-e-Islam rally at Motijheel’s Shapla Chattar on May 5, 2013.

This is the fourth complaint filed with the International Crimes Tribunal accusing the 76-year-old former premier, who resigned and fled to India on August 5 following massive protests against her government over a controversial quota system in government jobs.

Of the four, three cases are connected to the recent violence centring on the quota reform movement.

The other accused includes Awami League general secretary and former road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader, former minister Reshed Khan Menon, former mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, ex-advisor to prime minister Salman F Rahman, former security advisor to the prime minister Tarique Ahmed Siddique, former inspector general of police AKM Shahidul Haque, editor of ABnews24.com Subhash Singha Roy and former army chief Aziz Ahmed.

Besides them, some unnamed ministers, state ministers and lawmakers, unnamed individuals from law enforcement agencies and the then policymakers of some electronic and print media were accused.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s Secretary-General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday asked India to extradite Hasina to face trial as he accused her of plotting to thwart the country’s revolution.

Over 230 people were killed in the incidents of violence that erupted across the country following the fall of the Hasina-led Awami League government, taking the toll to more than 600 since the massive protest by students first started in mid-July.

An interim government was formed after the fall of the Hasina-led government, and 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was named its Chief Adviser.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Story so far: Paris is gearing up to host the 2024 Olympic Games from July 22 to August 11, when 10,500 athletes from over 200 countries will participate in 32 sports. Two nations – Russia and Belarus – will not be represented due to a ban imposed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Athletes from Russia and Belarus will, however, be part of the Games, competing as individual neutral athletes (AINs) without the flags, anthems and emblems of their countries. Their participation is also subject to a thorough vetting process as per IOC’s eligibility criteria. Russia and its ally Belarus have faced global condemnation and strict sanctions over the Ukraine war.

However, another nation which is part of a different war has not been banned from the Olympics, faces minimal economic sanctions, and evenly split support and condemnation. Israel, whose war on Gaza has killed 38,000 Palestinians in less than 10 months, will be represented by 88 athletes in the Games.

Why are there calls to ban Israel from the Paris Olympics?

Since October 2023, Israel has waged war on Gaza with the objective of dismantling Hamas — the Islamist militant group controlling the enclave. Laying siege to Gaza, Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have carpet-bombed the area, killing over 38,000 Palestinians, including 15,000 children, and displacing nearly all of the enclave’s population of 2.3 million.

IDF has also launched continuous air-strikes from Northern Gaza and steadily pushed deeper into Rafah in the south, claiming to have killed or captured about 14,000 Hamas fighters till date. Israel’s attack is in retaliation to an attack by Hamas on October 7, when militants breached the Israel-Gaza security barriers via motorcycles and bulldozers and launched a 5000-strong rocket strike, killing more than 1100 Israelis and taking hundreds hostage.

Cease-fire talks mediated by Egypt and Qatar, and backed by the U.S, are currently on hold as both parties are yet to agree on terms regarding hostage release, withdrawal of troops and other issues. Images of cities in Gaza reduced to rubble, heavy civilian casualties and the miserable living conditions of survivors in refugee camps have earned Israel global condemnation.

Ten nations led by South Africa lodged a case against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Tel Aviv of committing a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. The ICJ has ordered Israel to take preventive measures to stop the genocide in Gaza, but did not call for an immediate ceasefire. Several college campuses across Europe, Asia and the U.S. have seen pro-Gaza protests by students.

Citing these reasons, calls to ban Israel from participating in the Paris Olympics 2024 have emerged from several Muslim activist groups, sporting bodies, activists, and politicians. They argue that till Israel complies with international ceasefire demands, Israeli sport associations, including its teams, clubs, and participants, must be barred from participating in international competitions.

Who is calling to ban Israel from the Olympics?

Days after videos of Israeli soldiers turning one Gaza’s oldest sporting facilities— Yarmouk Stadium — into a makeshift camp to hold Palestinian detainees were released, the Jordan Football Association called upon the global sporting community to ban Israel from participating inpopular competitions.

Similarly, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) wrote to the IOC and Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) seeking a probe into “occupation crimes against sports and athletes in Palestine.” The PFA claims that over 400 sportspersons, coaches and officials have been killed or wounded by the IDF since the war began.

In February, a group of 26 French lawmakers (chiefly belonging to left-wing parties) wrote to the IOC, seeking to stop Israel from participating in the Games. Similar to Russian and Belarusian athletes, Israel’s athletes must participate under a neutral flag, the lawmakers insisted.

Several human rights organisations, activists, and celebrities too have sought Israel’s exclusion from the Games. Citing IOC’s charter, which states that “every individual must have access to the practice of sport, without discrimination of any kind in respect of internationally recognized human rights within the remit of the Olympic Movement,” groups have alleged that Israel’s war has violated the rights of Palestinian athletes.

Are these different from calls to ban Russia?

On February 28, 2022, four days after Russia invaded Ukraine, the IOC banned the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials in the 2022 Winter Paralympic Games. Calling the attack a “blatant violation of the Olympic Truce,” the IOC allowed such athletes to compete as AINs.

“We are committed to fair competitions for everybody without any discrimination,” the IOC said in a statement. While individual athletes who meet all anti-doping criteria and have not actively supported the war in Ukraine are allowed to compete in the Games, Russian and Belarusian teams cannot.

IOC’s statement came in the wake of global sanctions by top European nations – United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, Norway, and Sweden and other global powers like the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Japan. Russia was already banned by the IOC due to a state-sponsored doping programme, and its athletes had attended the 2021 and 2022 Games under the name ‘Russian Olympic Committee (ROC).

Calls to ban Israel have arisen after almost four months since it first attacked Gaza. Moreover, most of the above-mentioned powers have not sanctioned Israel (economically or otherwise). Turkey has refused to resume trade with Israel until a ceasefire is secured. The U.K., U.S, Canada and France have sanctioned some Israeli settlers in the West Bank — an Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory.

The U.S, Germany and Italy have continued to sell arms and provide military aid to Israel despite global calls to halt this. While both U.S. and Germany have called on Israel and Hamas to sign a ceasefire, Washington has vetoed several U.N. resolutions condemning Israel. Hence, the calls to ban Israel from the Games have not had the same impact as those calling for a similar ban of Russia.

What are the reactions to the calls for a ban?

Sparse protests seeking Israel’s ban from the Paris Games are scattered globally. In Switzerland, protestors smeared red handprints on the IOC’s office in Lausanne to highlight the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. In France, which is home to the second-highest Muslim population in Western Europe, protestors have camped outside the IOC’s office in Paris seeking a boycott of Israel.

Banners reading ‘Genocide is not a sport’ and ‘Boycott Israel’ have been displayed by pro-Palestine protestors camping outside IOC’s office in Saint-Denis, outside Paris.

Eight Palestinian athletes participating in the Games have been touted as a ‘symbol of Palestine’s resistance’. “Through this participation, we want to present the suffering of the Palestinian people and the unprecedented killing taking place in Gaza,” said Palestine Olympic committee head Jibril Rajoub. Of the eight athletes, one secured a place through regular qualifying and seven were given special invitations.

Calls to ban Israel from sporting events is not new. Palestine-based group Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), which has been seeking global sanctions on Israel since 2005 for its occupation in West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, has repeatedly called upon FIFA and IOC to ban Israel from their events. It has also condemned FIFA for sanctioning clubs which have supported Palestine.

What does IOC say?

In response to these calls for a ban, Paris 2024 Olympics Organising Committee chief Tony Estanguet told Reuters in January, “You have to stay in your place, not think that the Games are a magic wand that will solve all the problems and armed conflicts in our world.” He added that the Games can pacify relations and open the door for dialogue. Similarly, in March, IOC president Thomas Bach confirmed that Israel faces no threat to its Olympics status despite the war in Gaza.

Since the 1972 Munich Olympics, when eleven Israelis (sportsmen, coaches and a referee) were killed by Palestinian militants, security arrangements for Israeli athletes have been tight. This year, arrangements have been made such that Israeli cyclists and marathon runners will compete in secured venues in Paris.

With the Gaza and Ukraine wars in focus in Paris, the Olympic Games find themselves yet again cast under a dark political shadow.

Washington:

US President Joe Biden denied Monday that Israel’s war in Gaza was genocide, as he slammed an “outrageous” request by the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor for an arrest warrant for Israeli leaders.

“What’s happening is not genocide,” Biden told a Jewish American Heritage Month event at the White House as he discussed the conflict sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

His remarks referred specifically to a case at a different tribunal, the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ), which is dealing with allegations by South Africa that Israel’s war in Gaza is genocidal.

But he also amped up his criticism of the ICC, a separate war crimes court, saying that “we reject” ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan’s bid to arrest Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and its defense minister.

Khan also sought the arrest of top Hamas figures including the Palestinian operative group’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, and political chief Ismail Haniyeh.

“Whatever these warrants may imply, there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas,” Biden told the audience in the Rose Garden of the White House.

Biden pledged “ironclad” support for Israel, adding that “we stand with Israel to take out Sinwar and the rest of the butchers of Hamas.”

The US president further vowed to free hostages taken by Hamas during the October 7 attack “come hell or high water.”

Hours earlier, he had issued a written statement saying that the ICC warrants were “outrageous.”

– ‘Shameful’ –

Biden’s expression of support comes despite recent tensions over Israel’s war in Gaza. Washington recently withheld a shipment of bombs to Israel in a bid to warn it off an offensive in the southern city of Rafah.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned separately that the ICC prosecutor’s move “could jeopardize” ceasefire talks to end the Gaza conflict.

“We reject the prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful,” Blinken said in a statement.

US lawmakers were reportedly considering a legislative response punishing the ICC amid bipartisan fury among Republicans and Democrats.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson slammed the court’s “baseless and illegitimate” decision.

He accused Biden of a “pressure campaign” against Israel, saying the country was “fighting a just war for survival.”

Biden faces political pressure on both sides ahead of a November election clash with Donald Trump, with pro-Gaza student protests roiling US campuses while Republicans accuse him of failing to fully back Israel.

The White House refused to comment on whether the United States could take retaliatory action, including sanctions, against the ICC if it targeted Israel.

In 2020, the administration of then-president Donald Trump targeted the ICC with sanctions over its investigation in Afghanistan, but the Biden administration later lifted them.

However Washington’s ambiguous position over the court is reflected in the fact that it has backed the ICC’s attempt to prosecute Russian President Vladimir Putin over the invasion of Ukraine.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday that the United States “will continue” to assist the ICC in its investigation into alleged war crimes in Ukraine, despite denouncing the Israel move.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

The United States does not believe that genocide is occurring in Gaza but Israel must do more to protect Palestinian civilians, President Joe Biden’s top national security official said Monday.

As ceasefire talks stall and Israel continued striking the southern city of Rafah, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan insisted that the responsibility for peace lay with operative group Hamas.

“We believe Israel can and must do more to ensure the protection and wellbeing of innocent civilians. We do not believe what is happening in Gaza is a genocide,” Sullivan told a briefing.

The US was “using the internationally accepted term for genocide, which includes a focus on intent” to reach this assessment, Sullivan added.

Biden wanted to see Hamas defeated but realized that Palestinian civilians were in “hell”, Sullivan said.

Sullivan said he was coming to the White House podium to “take a step back” and set out the Biden administration’s position on the conflict, amid criticism from both ends of the US political spectrum.

Biden has come under fire from Republicans for halting some weapons shipments to press his demands that Israel hold off a Rafah offensive, while there have been protests at US universities against his support for Israel.

The US president believed any Rafah operation “has got to be connected to a strategic endgame that also answered the question, ‘what comes next?'” Sullivan added.

This would avoid Israel “getting mired in a counterinsurgency campaign that never ends, and ultimately saps Israel’s strength and vitality.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

View of the Peace Palace which houses World Court where Ukraine’s legal battle against Russia over allegations of genocide used by Moscow to justify its 2022 invasion, resumed in The Hague, Netherlands, on September 18, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Ukraine’s legal battle against Russia over allegations of genocide used by Moscow to justify its 2022 invasion resumes on September 18 at the United Nations’ highest court, as Russia seeks to have the case tossed out.

Hearings at the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, will see Ukraine supported by a record 32 other nations in a major show of support.

Kyiv launched the case shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, arguing that the attack was based on false claims of acts of genocide in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine and alleging that Moscow was planning genocidal acts in Ukraine. It wants the court to order Russia to halt its invasion and pay reparations.

Filing its case last year, Ukraine said that “Russia has turned the Genocide Convention on its head — making a false claim of genocide as a basis for actions on its part that constitute grave violations of the human rights of millions of people across Ukraine.”

Ukraine brought the case to the Hague-based court based on the 1948 Genocide Convention, which both Moscow and Kyiv have ratified. In an interim ruling in March 2022, the court ordered Russia to halt hostilities in Ukraine, a binding legal ruling that Moscow has flouted as it presses ahead with its devastating attacks on Ukrainian towns and cities.

Hearings this week are expected to see lawyers for Russia argue that the court does not have jurisdiction to hear the case, while Ukraine will call on judges to press ahead to hearings on the substance of its claims.

In an unprecedented show of international support for Kyiv, 32 of Ukraine’s allies including Canada, Australia and every European Union member nation except Hungary will also make statements in support of Kyiv’s legal arguments. The United States asked to participate on Ukraine’s side, but the U.N. court’s judges rejected the U.S. request on a technicality.

The court’s panel of international judges will likely take weeks or months to reach a decision on whether or not the case can proceed. If it does, a final ruling is likely years away.

The International Court of Justice hears disputes between nations over matters of law, unlike the International Criminal Court, also based in The Hague, that holds individuals criminally responsible for offenses including war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The ICC has issued a war crimes arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of responsibility for the abduction of Ukrainian children.