Former Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina fled to India on Aug. 5 with her close aides and former ministers, ending a 15-year rule. File.
| Photo Credit: AP

A special tribunal in Bangladesh on Tuesday asked the international police organization Interpol to issue a red notice for the arrest of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in connection with the deaths of hundreds of protesters during a mass uprising against her.

Hasina fled to India on Aug. 5 with her close aides and former ministers, ending a 15-year rule.

Also read | Can Sheikh Hasina be extradited from India to Bangladesh to stand trial?

Nobel Peace laurate Muhammad Yunus took over as the interim leader of the South Asian nation on Aug. 8, and later reconstituted the tribunal that once handled charges of crimes against humanity during the country’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan.

B.M. Sultan Mahmud, a prosecutor at the tribunal, told The Associated Press that they wrote to Interpol through the police chief seeking assistance from the France-based organization in the arrest of Hasina and others.

The Yunus-led government has promised to try Hasina and said that it would seek her extradition from India.

A policeman walks past a portrait of Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in Dhaka on January 8, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Bangladesh’s interim government on Sunday (November 10, 2024) said it will seek Interpol’s assistance in repatriating deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from India, and other “fugitives”, to face trial for alleged crimes against humanity.

Ms. Hasina and her party leaders face accusations of ordering brutal suppression of the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement, resulting in numerous casualties during the July-August protests. The movement later intensified into a large-scale uprising, forcing Ms. Hasina to flee to India on August 5.

According to the interim government led by Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, at least 753 people were killed and thousands injured during the protests, which it termed crimes against humanity and genocide. Over 60 complaints of crimes against humanity and genocide have been filed against Hasina and her party leaders with the ICT and the prosecution team till mid-October.

“A Red Notice will be issued through Interpol very soon. No matter where in the world these fugitive fascists are hiding, they will be brought back and held accountable in court,” Law Affairs adviser Asif Nazrul told reporters here after inspecting the status of renovation at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), which is housed in the Old High Court building on the Supreme Court premises.

Officials said a Red Notice is not an international arrest warrant, but rather a global request for law enforcement agencies to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action. Interpol member countries enforce Red Notices according to their own national laws.

The ICT was originally formed by the Hasina-led Awami League government in March 2010 to try the perpetrators of the crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 Liberation War. It later formed ICT-2, and at least six Jamaat-e-Islami and leaders of Hasina’s arch rival Khaleeda Zia’s BNP party were executed following the judgments of the two tribunals. The tribunal remained dormant since mid-June after its chairman retired.

The interim government reconstituted the tribunal on October 12.

On October 17, the tribunal issued arrest warrants against Ms. Hasina and 45 others, including her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy and several of her former cabinet members.

The interim government had earlier said that Hasina and several of her cabinet colleagues and Awami League leaders will be tried in this special tribunal.

However, Chief Adviser Yunus in an interview with the UK-based Financial Times newspaper last month said his government would not immediately seek Hasina’s extradition from India, an approach seen as preventing diplomatic tensions between the two countries.