Muhammad Asim Saddiqi 
Dhaka: Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal-1 has sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to death in a crime against humanity case. The tribunal convicted the ousted and fugitive Prime Minister, along with two of her top aides, for crimes committed during the July coup last year. Former Interior Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and former Inspector General of Police Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun were named as co-accused in the case.
Asaduzzaman remains at large, while Mamun is in custody and has confessed to the crime. Mamun has also become a state witness, making him the first convict to do so since the tribunal was established in 2010. The three-member tribunal, headed by Justice Muhammad Ghulam Murtaza, delivered the verdict after reading part of the 453-page judgment.
Earlier, the tribunal had directed 78-year-old Sheikh Hasina Wajid to return from India and appear in court, a directive she refused to comply with. The prosecution has also requested that the tribunal confiscate the assets of all three convicts and distribute them among the affected families.
