Hasina's party approaches ICC seeking probe into crimes against persons associated with it in B'desh

New Delhi/Dhaka, Oct 31 (PTI) Bangladesh's deposed premier Sheikh Hasina's Awami League has approached the International Criminal Court, seeking an investigation into crimes against persons associated with the party, as it intensified a multi-pronged global campaign against interim government chief Muhammad Yunus.

The party, now disbanded, has accused Yunus of unconstitutionally grabbing power through violent insurrection under a “meticulous design.” London-based law firm Doughty Street Chambers, which represented the Awami League at The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC), last week revealed that it has filed an Article 15 Communication of the Rome Statute, which grants the ICC prosecutor the power to initiate an investigation based on information it receives about crimes within the court's jurisdiction.

The law firm highlighted in its petition “allegations of the killing of 400 Awami League leaders and activists since July 2024, many through beatings and lynching perpetrated by violent mobs.” It calls on the prosecutor to initiate an investigation into "retaliatory violence, amounting to crimes within the court's jurisdiction", committed against party officials and others perceived to be associated with Sheikh Hasina’s former government.

"The Communication states that there is a reasonable basis to believe that the alleged crimes set out amount to the crimes against humanity of murder, imprisonment and persecution, warranting the initiation of an investigation by the Prosecutor," the Chambers said in a statement.

“The Communication is supported by witness testimony (accompanied by video evidence) which detail brutal killings,” it added.

“These offences have no realistic prospect of being genuinely investigated or prosecuted in Bangladesh and impunity for them would otherwise result,” the statement said.

In her latest audio-visual statement, uploaded on the party’s Facebook page late on Wednesday night and popularised by other social media platforms on Thursday, Hasina said the Awami League "cannot be roughed up through assaults and court cases – this time it will be proved.” “Awami League is a party derived from the soil of Bangladesh and its people,” she said.

Hasina, 78, faces multiple cases in Bangladesh after being ousted on August 5 last year following the mass student-led agitation in the country. Three days after her ouster, Yunus took over as the Chief Advisor of the interim government.

According to a UN rights office report, up to 1,400 people were killed between July 15 and August 15 last year as Hasina's government ordered a security crackdown on protesters.

Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) chief prosecutor Tajul Islam has sought the death penalty for Hasina, alleging that she was the "mastermind and principal architect" behind the crimes against humanity committed during the mass protests last year.

The Tribunal is set to announce the date for delivering its verdict against Hasina and her two top aides on November 13.

“Who carried out the July 2024 killings and arson attacks? We did not stage them – neither Awami League nor our government staged them ... all the killings were part of Yunus’ meticulous design,” Hasina said.

Yunus himself, she said, confessed that the ouster of the Awami League government was the fallout of that “meticulous design” during an event at the Clinton Foundation in the United States last year and “it is indeed a proven fact today.” Ever since she fled to India, Hasina has refrained from appearing in mainstream media. But in the past three days, she was interviewed by two major international news agencies, the UK-based Independent newspaper and some Indian dailies.

In her interviews, she warned that millions of her supporters would boycott voting if her party was barred from the election, delegitimising the next government by disenfranchising millions of people, exposing Bangladesh to an unworkable political system.

Hasina told the Independent that she “mourns each and every child, sibling, cousin and friend we lost as a nation” and would “continue to offer my condolences” but refused to apologise for protester deaths.

Bangladeshi media is barred from promoting Awami League activities, while Yunus’ press secretary Shafiqul Alam reacted to the foreign media outlet interviews of Hasina, saying “those who are interviewing her should not forget her past actions.” “Sheikh Hasina's human rights violations are clear in the United Nation's report,” he said.

Most senior Awami League leaders, including ministers of the past regime, are in jail or on the run at home and abroad to evade arrests, with courts generally denying their bail petitions.

In London, members of the British Bangladeshi diaspora have called on international organisations to act against what they fear are widespread constitutional and human rights violations unfolding in Bangladesh, under the interim administration led by Yunus.

At a media briefing on Thursday, UK-based solicitor Sayed Zaynal Abedin said he had undertaken in-depth analysis along with fellow legal experts and concerned British Bangladeshis to highlight that the ICT-BD has been “repurposed as a political weapon” to target Opposition leaders, journalists, and minority communities. PTI AR NPK ZH ZH