DHAKA, Jan 6, 2025 (AFP) – A Bangladeshi court has issued a second arrest warrant for exiled former leader Sheikh Hasina, this time for her alleged role in enforced disappearances, the chief prosecutor said on Monday.
Dhaka has already issued an arrest warrant on charges of crimes against humanity for 77-year-old Hasina, who fled to old ally India in August after she was toppled by a student-led revolution.
Her 15-year tenure saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents. Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor of the domestic International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), said the second warrant relates to enforced disappearances during her rule.
More than 500 people were allegedly abducted by Bangladeshi security personnel, with some detained in secret facilities for years. Victims have begun coming forward since Hasina’s ouster with harrowing accounts of their ordeals.
“The court issued a warrant against Sheikh Hasina and 11 others, including her military adviser, military personnel, and other law enforcement officials,” Islam told reporters. Bangladesh asked India in December to send Hasina back to face trial, a demand to which Delhi declined to respond. Islam said the court wanted to go ahead with the trial.
“We want to ensure the trial concludes as soon as possible, but that doesn’t mean we will break the law or impose a verdict without due process,” he told reporters.
Dozens of Hasina’s allies have been taken into custody since her government collapsed, accused of involvement in a police crackdown that killed more than 700 people during the unrest that led to her ouster.
Jailed ex-Malaysian leader Najib moves closer to house arrest
Jailed former Malaysian leader Najib Razak moved closer on Monday to serving the rest of his sentence at home after an appeal court ruled he could use a royal decree supporting his claim.
Najib, 71, is serving a six-year jail term for corruption related to the plunder of sovereign wealth fund 1MDB and faces several other cases linked to the financial scandal that led to his defeat in 2018 elections.
The purported existence of an order by the former king granting him permission to serve the rest of his current sentence at home has been at the centre of his arguments before the Court of Appeal.
A three-member bench ruled 2-1 to grant Najib’s appeal to use the decree to argue his case before the High Court. “Given the fact that there is no challenge (of the existence of the decree), there is no justification that the order has not been complied with,” said Mohamad Firuz Jaffril, one of the three Court of Appeal judges.
The High Court ruled in July that affidavits supporting Najib’s claim about the document’s existence were inadmissible as evidence because they were hearsay, prompting the former premier to challenge the decision. Monday’s ruling means that the case will go back to the High Court, where the decree could be introduced as evidence to bolster Najib’s bid to be placed under house arrest.
Najib was tried and originally sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment in July 2020 but the sentence was later halved by a pardons board. He is also defending himself against graft charges tied to more than $500 million in alleged bribes and several counts of money laundering.
