NEW DELHI: The Worldwide Council of Jurists (ICJ) will method the UN Human Rights Committee in search of pressing intervention to guard former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s proper to life and honest trial, amid widespread world concern over the loss of life sentence issued towards her by Bangladesh’s Worldwide Crimes Tribunal.
In a powerful assertion, ICJ President Adish C. Aggarwala condemned the decision, calling the trial course of deeply flawed, opaque, and inconsistent with worldwide human rights requirements. The ICJ confirmed that it’s going to quickly file an pressing attraction earlier than the UN physique to safeguard Hasina’s basic rights.
The Worldwide Council of Jurists, headquartered in London with workplaces in New Delhi, is an unbiased world authorized physique dedicated to strengthening democratic establishments and making certain justice worldwide, and is totally distinct from each the Worldwide Court docket of Justice and the Worldwide Fee of Jurists.
The organisation emphasised that, given the mounting questions on equity, transparency, and political neutrality, Sheikh Hasina has robust authorized grounds to withstand any extradition transfer. In line with Aggarwala, a number of stories point out that Hasina was denied satisfactory authorized illustration, supplied no significant alternative to defend herself, and subjected to a course of marred by velocity, secrecy, and critical procedural irregularities. These defects, he stated, undermine the legitimacy of the decision and create the notion of a politically pushed final result.
“A loss of life sentence should be rooted in clear proceedings and clear proof,” Aggarwala acknowledged. “However right here, important components of justice had been conspicuously absent. Your complete course of seems politically motivated and incompatible with Bangladesh’s obligations underneath worldwide human rights legislation.”
Aggarwala, who has served as Vice-Chairman of the Bar Council of India and President of the Supreme Court docket Bar Affiliation, careworn that the proper to a good trial will not be solely a constitutional assure but in addition a common human proper protected underneath the Worldwide Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Bangladesh is a celebration.
Addressing stories concerning Hasina’s potential extradition from India, he warned that worldwide legislation prohibits extradition to a rustic the place the accused has confronted an unfair trial or dangers persecution, torture, or a loss of life sentence delivered with out due course of. “When a essentially flawed course of leads to a loss of life sentence, extradition would expose the accused to irreversible injustice,” he stated, noting that such a step would violate each Indian jurisprudence and worldwide extradition norms.
He additional emphasised that India, as a nation dedicated to the rule of legislation and human rights, can not legally or morally hand over Sheikh Hasina underneath the present circumstances. Aggarwala urged the worldwide group to carefully monitor developments in Bangladesh, warning that courts should not change into devices of political retaliation. He stated that due course of, judicial independence, and constitutional protections are important to any functioning democracy.
He additionally highlighted that a number of former Chief Justices of the Bangladesh Supreme Court docket — Justice Md. Ruhul Amin, Justice A.B.M. Khairul Haque, Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim, Justice Md. Muzammel Hossain, and Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha — have beforehand served as Vice Presidents of the ICJ. Reiterating Hasina’s authorized rights, Dr. Aggarwala identified that she may problem any extradition effort by invoking Article 21 of the Indian Structure, which ensures the proper to life and honest trial. Indian courts, together with the Supreme Court docket, have constantly held that no particular person might be extradited or deported in the event that they face unfair trial, political persecution, torture, or a loss of life sentence with out satisfactory safeguards, as reaffirmed within the landmark case Kishore Singh v. State of Rajasthan.