Bangladesh's Sheikh Hasina sentenced to six months in prison in this case

Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to six months in prison in a contempt of court case by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), according to media reports. The verdict was issued by a three-member bench of the International Crimes Tribunal-1, headed by chairman Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder. This marks the first time that the ousted Awami League leader has been sentenced in any case since she left office and fled Bangladesh in August last year. In the same verdict, the tribunal sentenced Shakil Akand Bulbul of Gobindaganj in Gaibandha to two months in prison. 

Leaked audio clip 

A three-member panel of the tribunal-1 (ICT), led by Justice Md Golam Mortuza Mozumder, passed the order after reviewing a leaked phone conversation involving the ousted Awami League leader that circulated on social media last year, The Daily Star newspaper reported. In the audio clip, the ousted premier is allegedly heard telling former Gobindaganj upazila chairman and banned Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) leader Shakil Akand Bulbul, "I have had 227 cases filed against me, so I have received a licence to kill 227 people."

The tribunal considered the statement contemptuous and a direct attempt to undermine the court. In its judgment, the tribunal said the sentences would come into effect from the day of their arrest or surrender, it added.

Hasina faces multiple cases

The 72-year-old faces multiple cases in Bangladesh after being ousted on August 5 last year following a major student-led agitation in the country, which forced her to flee Dhaka. After Hasina's ouster, the 84-year-old Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took over as the head of an interim government in Bangladesh in August last year.

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Most leaders of the Awami League and ministers of the past regime, including several officials, were arrested or were on the run at home and abroad as the government initiated their trial for brutal actions to tame the uprising, leaving several hundred people, including students, dead.

Hasina and her regime leaders are being prosecuted in Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, formed in 2010 for trying hardened collaborators of Pakistani troops during the 1971 Liberation War on charges like crimes against humanity.

(With inputs from PTI)