DHAKA: Bangladeshi courts on Thursday introduced costs in opposition to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her son Sajeeb Wazed Pleasure, daughter Saima Wazed Putul, and several other others in reference to six instances over alleged corruption underneath the Purbachal New City venture. Following a listening to on the instances filed by the Anti-Corruption Fee (ACC) of the nation, Decide Mohammad Abdullah Al Mamun of Dhaka Particular Decide Court docket-5 framed costs on three instances. Moreover, Decide Rabiul Alam of Dhaka Particular Decide Court docket-4 indicted them within the remaining three instances, native media reported.
“Fees have been framed in opposition to the accused in three instances. In certainly one of these instances, 12 individuals together with Sheikh Hasina, within the second, 17 together with Sheikh Hasina and Sajeeb Wazed Pleasure, and within the third, 18 individuals together with Sheikh Hasina and Saima Wazed Putul,” the nation’s main Bengali each day ‘Jugantor’ quoted ACC Prosecutor Mir Ahmed Ali Salam as saying.
The courts additionally issued arrest warrants in opposition to them and glued August 13 to file the testimonies of prosecution witnesses.
Bangladesh Awami League’s media cell on Wednesday reported that the nation is witnessing an alarming surge in “pretend authorized instances, mob violence, and political revenge” underneath the Muhammad Yunus-led interim authorities.
The occasion highlighted a “collapse of the justice system” in Bangladesh amid a “tsunami of pretend instances” for the reason that fall of the democratically-elected Awami League authorities. Earlier this month, the Worldwide Crimes Tribunal (ICT) of Bangladesh sentenced Hasina to a six-month jail sentence on costs of contempt of courtroom.
Moreover, Shakil Akanda Bulbul, a frontrunner of the Awami League’s pupil wing Chhatra League, was sentenced to 2 months in jail in reference to the identical case. The three-member tribunal, headed by ICT Chairman Justice Golam Mortuza Majumdar, handed the judgment, native media reported.
The prosecutor filed contempt of courtroom costs in opposition to Hasina and the Chhatra League chief primarily based on a viral audio clip leaked on social media that featured the previous Prime Minister and allegedly confirmed her interfering within the judicial course of and issuing threats to the tribunal.
Final month, the ICT issued a show-cause discover to Hasina, who left the nation in August 2024, and Bulbul within the alleged contempt of courtroom case.
Analysts reckon the developments as a serious political vendetta being pursued by the interim authorities led by Yunus, as a number of instances had been filed in opposition to the previous PM and her supporters on frivolous grounds instantly after her ouster in August 2024.
A number one voice within the wrestle to revive democracy within the nation, Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, needed to flee the nation in an ignominious method and search refuge in India.